Psalm Reflections

Summer Bible Institute # 4 - The Holy Spirit

2010-08-07T11:10:00.003-04:00

Our next topic will be the Holy Spirit. In traditional theology this subject is called "Pneumatology" based on the Greek word pneuma, or 'spirit.'

Last time, when we considered salvation, we covered the topic of the application of the work of Christ to the believing sinner. This is technically one aspect of the work of the Holy Spirit; he is the one who takes the benefits of the work of redemption and applies them to the elect. As a result, when we consider the Holy Spirit this week, we are going to concentrate more on the Person of the Spirit - he is not a misty cloud or an 'it'; rather the Spirit is referred to in Scripture by the masculine pronoun, 'he.' He also has the elements of personality: intellect, emotions, and will.

This time I am providing only one article that is relatively easy. It is one chapter from the book "Baptism and Fulness" by John R. W. Stott. Reading it will give a good background to understanding the Person of the Holy Spirit as well as his work in the lives of believers.

Article: "Baptism and Fullness: The Work of the Holy Spirit Today, by John R. W. Stott; Chapter 2, "The Fullness of the Spirit," pp. 47-75.

Summer Bible Institute # 4 - Salvation

2010-07-22T15:38:00.006-04:00

The study of salvation is called "soteriology" from the Greek word for salvation. It is sometimes difficult to narrow down the content of this area of study because it really touches on many different areas of theology. For example, I am including in our study some aspects of the "Work of Christ" which really is a part of the study of Christ, the Redeemer. I'm also including some information on "The Application of the Work of Redemption" which involves the work of the Holy Spirit in applying the saving work of Christ to each individual believer which usually falls into the study of the Holy Spirit.

Salvation is the whole work of God in planning, securing, and applying redemption to fallen human beings so you can see why it is hard to contain it within one topic.

This week I have chosen for our readings three authors writing specifically about the subject of the "atonement" which is part of the work of Christ. The Bible teaches, and Christians believe, that when Jesus Christ died on the cross he provided an atonement for our sins through his death as a sacrifice in our place. These three writings are written at three different levels; they don't all communicate the same information, nor do they present competing views but they are all about the atonement of Christ.

Relatively Easy: "Major Bible Themes"(Chafer and Walvoord): Chapter 9: God the Son - His Substitutionary Death.

Moderately Hard: "The Problem of Forgiveness" - Chapter 4 from The Cross of Christ, by John R. W. Stott.

Downright Difficult: "The Death of Christ" - Chapter 4 from On The Incarnation of the Word of God, by Saint Athanasius (third century AD).

Summer Bible Institute # 3 - The Person of Christ

2010-07-02T16:03:00.004-04:00

The third topic of our 2010 Summer Bible Institute is "The Person of Christ." This area of study is usually called "Christology" (which means the study of Christ, the Messiah). Christology is often divided into two broad categories:

First, the Person of Christ - this includes his pre-existence, his relation to the Old Testament, his virgin birth, and his earthly life and ministry. The concentration of this subject is on his two natures as both God and Man in one person and how these natures relate to one another.
Second, the Work of Christ - this includes his obedience to the law which qualified him to be the Redeemer (this is called his "active obedience") and his submission to death in our place as the Redeemer (his "passive obedience"). This subject focuses on what Christ accomplished in his death and resurrection. Important biblical concepts are studied, for example, atonement, reconciliation, redemption, and so on.

In our next study together on July 14, we are only going to consider the first topic of Christology - the Person of Christ. The work of Christ is related to our Salvation, which we will take up next on July 28.

This week I have uploaded some readings about Christ, particularly about his deity. This is usually the hardest topic of Christology. In the early church (from the time of the apostles until 325 AD), there was debate within the church about whether Jesus Christ is both God and Man. The Arians took a position similar to modern Jehovah's Witnesses that Christ was a supremely good man endowed by a high degree of god-consciousness but that he was not God. The long and destructive debate, which led to the council of Nicea in 325 AD, allowed Christian teachers and pastors to carefully study and articulate the Bible's teaching on this point. This led to the clarity which has prevailed to the present day among the different groups of Christendom, including Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Evangelical Protestants. Whatever differences we might have, we agree that Jesus is the God-Man.

Again, the readings range from simple to difficult about the topic:

Relatively Easy: Major Bible Themes by Lewis Sperry Chafer and John F. Walvoord (Zondervan, 1974). Chapter 7 - "God the Son: His Deity," and Chapter 8 - "God the Son: His Incarnation" (pp. 52-58).

Somewhat Difficult: Jesus Christ Our Lord by John F. Walvoord. Chapter 7 - "The Person of the Incarnate Christ" (pp. 106-122).

Downright Difficult: Christian Theology, by Millard Erickson. Chapter 32 - "The Deity of Christ" (pp. 683-704).

Summer Bible Institute # 2 - Humanity and Sin

2010-06-25T22:35:00.005-04:00

The second topic of our "Basic Theology" course for the Summer Bible Institute is the Bible's teaching on nature of Humanity. Theologians call this subject "Anthropology" which comes from the Greek word for human.

Unlike the secular discipline called "Anthropology" the Bible's teaching is much more full. The reason is that the secular study only deals with the nature of human beings in the various cultures of this world, while the Bible deals with human nature in at least four states of existence:

The human before sin entered the life and environment - we might call this human nature in its original holiness.
The human in the present state of sin -- this can be subdivided into two categories: Humans under the domination of sin (the lost) and humans under the reign of grace (the saved).
The human between death and resurrection - this is called 'the intermediate state.'
The redeemed human in the eternal state - we might call this, human nature in confirmed holiness.

The readings I have chosen for this week focus on the nature of sin in the human being. Again I have chosen readings that are relatively easy, moderately difficult, and very difficult.

Relatively Easy: Chapters Five and Six from Basic Christianity by John Stott on "The Fact and Nature of Sin" and "The Consequences of Sin."

Somewhat Difficult: Chapter 29, "The Magnitude of Sin," from Christian Theology by Millard Erikson

Downright Difficult: Systematic Theology by Louis Berkof; "Man in the State of Sin: Chapter 4-Sin in the Life of the Human Race."

Summer Bible Institute # 1 - The Attributes of God

2010-06-11T14:53:00.005-04:00

On Wednesday, June 16 I will teach the first week of our Summer Bible Institute class on "Basic Theology."

The first class will cover the Bible's teaching on the Existence and Attributes of God. In theology this subject is called "theology proper." Since the word theology means "the study of God" then any study of the Person of God is, properly speaking, what theology is all about...or "theology proper."

For each class, I plan to put some articles on the web about the topic. While reading them beforehand is not a requirement of participating in this class, if you have a chance to read any of them, it will help you as a preparation for the class. Today, I have put three articles to the web that are available below - I intend to do this for each one of the topics we will cover this summer. The articles range from relatively easy, to somewhat demanding, to downright difficult. You will note that people writing about theology tend to use an "in-house" language which can be sort of like listening to your family doctor talk about a medication - it can be a little off-putting at first. Theological writing is a mixture of terms and phrases from philosophy, the Bible, Latin, and the discipline's own language. One helpful thing to know is that most theological words (unlike most medical terms) are properly defined in a standard English dictionary so you don't have to look very far to find out the meaning of the words.

The topic for the first class is the attributes (characteristics) of God which can be divided up and viewed in many different ways. The three articles are not three way of looking at the topic, though there are some differences between the writers; rather they are written at three levels of difficulty:

Relatively Easy: Chapters Three and Four from "The God You Can Know" by Dan DeHaan on "The Perfections of God."

Somewhat Difficult: The article on "God, Attributes of" written by G. R. Lewis from "The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology" edited by Walter A. Elwell.

Downright Difficult: Chapters vi and vii on the "Communicable" and "Incommunicable Attributes of God" from Systematic Theology by Louis Berkof.

When you click on one of the above titles, you will be taken to a webpage and allowed to download that article to your computer (you do not need to sign up for anything!). Choose which article you want to read...and read away.

See you on Wednesday, June 16 in the Impact Room at the White Lake Campus for our first class on "Basic Theology."

Psalm 150

2010-04-10T02:30:00.000-04:00

This final Hymn of Praise closes out the Psalter. The book ends with a final call to all of creation to give exuberant, ceaseless, loud, and submissive praise to the living God. Here, not only God’s people but “everything that has breath” (v 6) is called to praise God with every means imaginable.

At first sight, the entire psalm is simply a call for everything and everyone to praise the LORD, but a more careful reading reveals that, even in this command to praise, the reasons for praise are touched upon.

First, we should “Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in the mighty heavens” (Psalm 150.1). One question that arises is what sanctuary is being spoken of here, since even the Old Testament saints knew that the earthly temple was but an image of the heavenly abode of God (Exodus 25.40; Hebrews 8.5). In its Old Testament context, however, the psalm seems to be speaking of the Most Holy Place of the tabernacle / temple in which the blood of atonement was sprinkled (Leviticus 16). We are called to praise God because, though he is the living God of infinite holiness, he has provided a way for sinners to be forgiven and accepted before him. For us today, of course, we praise him that “his sanctuary” and the “mighty heavens” are one and the same place, the heavenly temple where the blood of Christ pleads for sinners.

Also, we are to “Praise him for his mighty deeds” (v 2a). These are his great acts of redemption—the Exodus and the Passover under the old covenant; the cross and the empty tomb under the new covenant. His mighty deeds are a reflection of what the sanctuary refers to—mercy, judgment and redemption are not just a theory and a reality of the divine nature.

And, finally, we are to “Praise him according to his excellent greatness” (v 2b). All of the attributes of God work together to exhibit who he is and what he does—God’s people experience his character in their redemption, adoption, and destiny.

As the Psalter closes, we are called to praise the LORD in a way that has not yet happened in its fullness. The call is still appropriate (we could sing this every day!) but it looks forward to a reality that will only occur when the final chapter of God’s story has been fulfilled. That will be when what God predicted through the prophet Isaiah has finally come to pass:

“By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance’” (Isaiah 45.23).

And the apostle Paul, we of the New Testament church, confess today that we, too, look forward to that day when,

“at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2.10–11).

Even so, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22.20).

Psalm 149

2010-04-09T02:29:00.000-04:00

The previous psalm calls all the world to praise the LORD and it ends with the fact that one its many nations is the object of God’s special love and grace. Israel had been given the knowledge of God in a unique way to become the avenue of blessing to the nations of the earth. Psalm 149 pictures the earthly kingdom of God of the old covenant expanding as God’s people take vigorous action to extend the kingdom throughout the world.

This Hymn of Praise divides into two surprising parts that may be seen in this way:

(vv 1–4) Let us praise God with song
(vv 5–9) Let us praise God with a sword

The first half invites God’s people to “Sing to the LORD a new song!” because he is both our Maker and our King. This should lead to exuberant worship in which each worshiper plays a part in giving honor to God. In this exhilarating exercise even dance has a place (this is practiced among Orthodox Jews; the movie “Fiddler on the Roof” is a good example of this kind of praise).

To understand the second half of the psalm, which begins in verse 5, we must keep in mind the differences between the kingdom in its Old Testament and New Testament forms. In the Old Testament, the kingdom of God is a visible and earthly realm; Israel is God’s chosen nation whose national life and worship are meant to reveal what it means for God to rule over his people. In the Old Testament as in the New Testament, the ‘sword’ could refer not only to the physical weapon of warfare but to God’s Word, the unique possession of God’s people (Psalm 45.2–3; Isaiah 49.2; Ephesians 6.17). While there is little doubt that Israel was compelled to use the sword in defensive and offensive ways in the establishment of the Old Testament kingdom, they saw the Word of God as the means by which God expanded his kingdom.

In other words, to the worshipers in the temple, this psalm reminded them of their responsibility to establish and to expand God’s rule. They did this as they brought foreign kings into submission, executing vengeance on the nations and taking captive their leaders (vv 7–8).

The church is given a similar missionary charge, to extend the kingdom of Christ throughout the earth (Matthew 28.18–20). While our power is not military, it is by means of the same Word of God that we engage in this work. Military metaphors are used throughout the New Testament to picture this work:

“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete” (2 Cor. 10.3-6; see also Ephesians 6.13–17).

It is important for us to remember that when Jesus announced his public ministry in Nazareth, he read in the synagogue meeting from the Isaiah scroll:

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor” (Isaiah 61.1–2a).

He ended his reading in the middle of verse 2, not reading the remainder of the verse:

“…and the day of vengeance of our God” (Isaiah 61.2b).

He didn’t finish the sentence not because vengeance is not a part of his commission as the Messiah-King, but because that is part of his second appearance, not his first. He came in humility the first time to “seek and save the lost” (Luke 19.10); he will appear a second time “in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thessalonians 1.8).

It is an honor for all God’s people to be a part of extending his gracious rule into the lives of people all over the world (Psalm 149.9). We do this as our righteous lives and words shine the light of the gospel to both reveal the disfiguring effects of sin in people’s lives and to show them the way to God.

Psalm 148

2010-04-08T02:28:00.000-04:00

Except for the final verse, this psalm is a general Hymn of Praise to God as Creator and Sustainer of life. As with each of the final five psalms in the Psalter, this psalm begins and ends with the Hebrew word, “Hallelujah,” meaning “Praise the LORD!”

The movement of the psalm is from the heavenly host (vv 1–2), to the heavenly bodies (vv 3–4), to the sea creatures, weather patterns, and various land and air creatures (vv 7–10). Finally, the people of the earth are called to give praise, from “Kings…princes and all rulers of the earth” to all people of all ages (vv 1–12). All are called to give praise to God as ruler of all the earth (v 13).

Yet the psalm ends with these words:

“He has raised up a horn for his people, praise for all his saints, for the people of Israel who are near to him” (Psalm 148.15).

A ‘horn’ is a symbol of power, usually royal power. In this place it probably refers to the king in the line of David. The entire creation, including all classes of people, are called to praise God as creator and sustainer of life because he has made Israel his own people, given them promises, and by his grace makes them fit to be his witnesses to the rest of the earth.

Even those psalms that focus simply on praise of the Creator include God’s purpose for covenant people. From the beginning of the covenant people (Genesis 12), it was God’s intention to bless the nations of the earth through the offspring of Abraham. What he began through Israel, Abraham’s physical offspring, and their anointed kings, he now continues through Abraham’s spiritual offspring with our final Anointed King, Jesus Christ. Since all of God’s redemptive purposes are fulfilled in Christ and since the church is the means by which this message will be spread throughout the world, in this psalm worshipers call all creation to witness to God’s plan. He has done this so that, “through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 3.10).

How great is the purpose of God for us. Even in our generation we continue to carry out the eternal purpose of God to reconcile all things to himself through Christ.

Psalm 147

2010-04-07T02:27:00.000-04:00

As with each of the last five psalms which comprise a final benediction to the Psalter, this psalm begins and ends with the words, “Praise the LORD!” As a Hymn of Praise, Psalm 147 focuses on the LORD’s gracious provision in bringing the exiles back from their banishment and rebuilding Jerusalem, providing them with crops and rain (vv 2, 3, 14, 18).

The psalm says of God:

“His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love” (Psalm 147.10–11).

This delightfully poetic sentence reveals an important fact about God that we should take to heart. In our world, we honor physical beauty and athletic prowess above almost anything else. ‘Celebrities’ are most often those who are beautiful or athletic, or, even better, both at once! We listen to them over even experts and we expect more from them than we do from ‘normal’ people. Consider how Tiger Woods sexual immorality has so deeply disappointed people. Even though he is not a standard-bearer of morality, many people seemed to believe that his physical prowess propelled him above common human sins. When he showed by his actions that he was, in fact, less moral than normal people, there was great anger and disappointment.

What is most highly valued among people is insignificant in the eyes of God. Instead, what God honors is people “who fear him…who hope in his steadfast love” (v 11). Rather than being enamored with celebrities we should seek to be the kind of people whom God recognizes as worthy of honor.

When we recognize what God desires, we will seek to build our lives around being the kind of people who will display that kind attitude.

Psalm 146

2010-04-06T02:26:00.000-04:00

The last five psalms form a fitting conclusion to the Psalter. Each one is a Hymn of Praise which begins and ends with the word “Hallelujah,” translated “Praise the LORD!” In this one, it appears the Cantor call upon the congregation to praise the LORD to which the individual worshipers respond with a personal offering, “Praise the LORD O my soul” (verse 1).

This psalm contrasts trust in human beings with trust in the LORD.

“Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish” (Psalm 146.3–4).

Though the psalm begins with “Put not your trust in princes,” it is evident that the focus is not on a supreme human ruler but on the fact that he is just a mere man (note the parallel to ‘princes’ is ‘a son of man’). Another human is not a firm source of confidence since, like all others, he too will die and his plans not come to fruition.

On the other hand, the LORD alone is worthy of trust:

He is the creator of all things (v 6)
He metes out justice on earth (v 7)
He supplies food to the poor and hungry (v 7)
When one who has been wrongly imprisoned is set free, it is the LORD’s doing (v 7).
When a blind person is made well, it is only a result of the LORD’s will (v 8)
When a person has been cast down by troubles or oppression, only the LORD can make him stand erect (v 8)
For example, the LORD takes the side of the widow and fatherless when they are wronged (v 9)
But he stands against the wicked person in his attempt to gain unjustly (v 9)
In other words, “the LORD reigns forever…to all generations!” (v 10).

This psalm is a reminder that only the LORD is a firm source of confidence in life. We are always tempted to put our trust in other people—we seek life and meaning in relationships and in employers. Though these are important to us, true life and the hope of justice can never be found in these things—we must always look to God alone for the significance and security we long for.

Psalm 145

2010-04-03T02:25:00.000-04:00

This is the eighth and last psalm by King David in this final collection of Davidic psalms in the Psalter. It is called “A Psalm of Praise” in the title and evidently begins the final five psalms which all begin with the words, “Praise the LORD!”

This is the last the acrostic poems in the Psalter in which each verse of the psalm begins with a successive letter of the alphabet. There are nine acrostic poems in the Bible (Psalms 9; 10; 25; 34; 37; 111; 112; 119; 145) but, interestingly, none of the ones written by David are ‘perfect’—in this case, verse 13 which should begin with the letter “n” is missing (note, a verse is added in the ESV and the NIV, but is not added in the NASB; it is in brackets in the ESV with a footnote that indicates that it is found in only one copy of the standard Hebrew text). Why would David have written six acrostic psalms but made each one imperfect? It is possible that this was a literary device meant to underline the fact that no purely human composition can be truly perfect; only God is perfect.

One interesting thing about this psalm is that it is a general thanksgiving. Though it quotes from Exodus 34.6 in verse 8, a statement of the covenant character of the LORD, and though it refers to the greatness of God’s kingdom (vv 11–13), the psalm does not refer in any explicit way to Israel’s history or to God’s saving works on behalf of his people. Instead, the psalm is a general song of praise for God’s universal works on behalf of his creation. Consider these words that are often used in prayers of thanksgiving before a meal:

“The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works” (Psalm 145.15–17).

Bible students sometimes refer to God’s “special grace,” which describes his saving grace which he shows towards his people, the special objects of his love (Ephesians 1.5–6). On the other hand, “common grace” refers to the ways that God showers his love on all people—by “giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14.17). This psalm is an example of God’s common grace.

God’s intention is the salvation of so many people that they cannot be counted (Genesis 13.16; Revelation 7.9–10). His intention is to redeem the earth (Romans 8.21). In the Bible, the material creation is not bad, even though now it is riddled with sin. Yet the opposite of “spiritual” is “natural” not material; at the renewal of all things, the material creation—both humans and nature—will again become both spiritual and material as we were meant to be. Psalm 145 reminds us of this truth and invites all people to bless him.

“My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever” (Psalm 145.21).

Psalm 144

2010-04-02T02:24:00.000-04:00

This psalm of David is a Royal Psalm, requesting God to give victory to his king (v 10) who is fighting against some opposing foreign nation (vv 7, 11). The well-being and prosperity of the nation is dependent on God’s intervention (vv 12–15). Like most psalms, this one is sufficiently vague about details (like what specific nation is opposing Israel) so that it could be used over many generations and in many situations. Much of this psalm is drawn from Psalm 18, another though longer royal psalm composed by David (Psalm 18 is repeated in 2 Samuel 22).

One of the foundation stones of Israel’s religion was the “blessings and cursings of the law.” These are recorded in Deuteronomy 27–28 where they preceded the renewal of the Mosaic covenant by Israel before they entered the Promised Land. The blessings of obedience are characterized by the word ‘fruitfulness’ and the curses for disobedience are characterized by the word ‘barrenness.’

This psalm uses the images of blessing that are found in Deuteronomy. God’s blessing on his people will be shown in a number of ways:

The fruitfulness of the womb: “May our sons in their youth be like plants full grown, our daughters like corner pillars cut for the structure of a palace” (v 12).
The fruitfulness of the fields: “May our granaries be full, providing all kinds of produce” (v 13).
The fruitfulness of the flocks: “May our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields” (v 13).
…and of the herds: “May our cattle be heavy with young, suffering no mishap or failure in bearing” (v 14).
And protection from foes: “May there be no cry of distress in our streets” (v 14).

In Christ we also may experience all of God’s blessings, only now it is far more than just the material blessings of the creation prospering under the hand of God:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1.3).

Our blessings include election, adoption as God’s sons and daughters, redemption, forgiveness, and more (Ephesians 1.3–10). Obedience also plays a key part in our experience of the blessings of God.

Thus we can still worship God using this psalm. We acknowledge that in Christ we find the true and lasting blessing of a right relationship with the Lord. As Christians, we recognize that Jesus is the final heir of David, and pray that God will allow him to subdue more people to his gracious rule, and in the process expand the people of God and bring his blessings into their daily lives. Indeed,

“Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall! Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 144.15).

Psalm 143

2010-04-01T02:23:00.000-04:00

Central to the Bible’s teachings are the ideas of atonement and justification. These are not doctrines that are ‘read into’ the Bible, as some have asserted, but they are drawn out of the Bible’s clear teaching on the relationship between God and his human creatures.

In the Bible, the central characteristic of God is that he is holy, which means ‘set apart’ from everything he has made. All his other attributes are reflections of his holiness so that his love is holy love, his grace is a holy grace, and his wrath against sin is holy wrath. Because God is holy, he is rightly angry with everything that rebels against his character. Though we may feel ‘pure’ and ‘innocent’ before God, the Bible’s unfolding story begins with the fact of human rebellion in Paradise and the judgment of the curse. God warned Adam in Paradise, “…in the day that you eat of [the fruit] you shall surely die” (Genesis 2.17); thus, spiritual death is the inheritance of every son of Adam and daughter of Eve. Though we are alive physically, we are said to be “dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2.1–2). We are not spiritually sick; we are spiritually dead.

The need for atonement, or payment for sin, is based on God’s holiness and on universal human sinfulness. We don’t have the spiritual life we need to obey God and, even if we did, we cannot pay for our past sins which stand as a barrier between our souls and God. The gospel is that God provided the atonement—a sacrifice that satisfies his wrath against sin—through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. What we are unable to do, Christ has done for us. Through his death on the cross in our place he has atoned for our sins; through his resurrection from the dead he possesses that life we need.

Justification, then, supplies our need. When we trust in Christ’s atonement, not trusting in ourselves and our abilities but only in his grace, God freely forgives us (for God to justify a person means he declares a person to be righteous in his sight) and he grants to us the spiritual life that makes us alive and able to do what he commands.

Psalm 143 is important in this regard since it is a key text from the Old Testament that undergirds the New Testament idea of our need for “righteousness” as a free gift from God on the basis of Christ’s atoning death:

“Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you” (Psalm 143.2).

Many people have the mistaken notion that the Old Testament taught ‘salvation by keeping the law’ and the New Testament teaches ‘salvation by grace.’ No! Both the Old Testament and New Testament are clear that, because of God’s holiness and human sin, salvation has always been by grace through faith in an atonement that only God can provide. The New Testament is clearer on the Person who provided that atonement but it is not clearer on the fact that only God can save people. When David said, “No one living is righteous before you” he was simply stating what is found in other places in the Old Testament—human beings have no ability to restore themselves to God apart from the Person and work of the Divine-Human Redeemer. Only God can make people righteous.

The gospel of Christ is written throughout the book God has given us, not only in some New Testament passages—its most basic elements are found wherever human inability and divine power are brought together.

Psalm 142

2010-03-31T02:22:00.001-04:00

Everyone knows what it means to feel lonely; some feel it more strongly due to their life-experience, temperament, mood, and lifestyle. King David, who wrote nearly half the psalms, was a person who seems to have experienced the full range of emotions. This Individual Lament Psalm was written at a specific point in time. The title of Psalm 142 reads, “A Maskil of David, when he was in the cave. A Prayer.” There are two incidents in David’s life in which he hid in a cave. The first, which is usually regarded as the basis for this psalm, reads as follows:

“David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. And he became captain over them. And there were with him about four hundred men” (1 Samuel 22.1-2).

This is a summary statement of a period of time in which David began to build the popular movement which later carried him to become the king of Israel. He lived for many years as a guerilla soldier in the mountains of Israel, being chased by King Saul in the wilderness.

In this context he wrote Psalm 142, his “complaint” (v 2; another word for ‘lament’) of his feelings about his situation. Though the psalm contains an affirmation of God’s character as the refuge of his troubled child (v 5) there is little confidence of his deliverance until the end in which, after a vow of thanksgiving, he ends with a statement of confidence that God’s purpose for him to be the king of Israel will be fulfilled:

“Bring me out of prison, that I may give thanks to your name! The righteous will surround me, for you will deal bountifully with me” (Psalm 142.7)

In the context of a young man who had recently escaped from his previous employer, who was the king of Israel, and who was now living in the wilderness in obscurity, the noticeable character of the psalm is that of David’s loneliness:

“When my spirit faints within me, you know my way! In the path where I walk they have hidden a trap for me. Look to the right and see: there is none who takes notice of me; no refuge remains to me; no one cares for my soul” (Psalm 142.3–4).

I remember a specific time, in the 1990’s, as I was reading through the psalms and this psalm seemed to speak for me in a powerful and personal way. David’s words, “No one cares for my soul” reflected my personal feelings at that point—sometimes leadership requires that one be in a lonely position for a time.

We must allow the psalms to speak for us, not misusing them by thinking that they were written directly about us or to us—David was taking his own heart’s concerns to the LORD in prayer. Yet these psalms speak for us at points, especially when we find that something in our life-experience parallels what the psalm writer was expressing to God. Because the psalms are a compilation of worship poems written by godly people, when we prayerfully read them we will find that there are many places where they speak for us with power.

Psalm 141

2010-03-30T02:21:00.000-04:00

Some readers, who have attended liturgical churches, may recognize this psalm. Since the early centuries of the church it has been used to introduce Evening Prayer. The reference to the “evening sacrifice” in verse 2 is probably the occasion for the original setting of how David intended the psalm to be used and the reason why it later became connected with the evening prayer of the church.

Sometimes in reading the psalms we might read over certain things that seem to have little significance. Yet sometimes it is the things of little significance from which we learn something about worship. Consider the second verse:

“Let my prayer be counted as incense before you” (Psalm 141.2).

In the Bible, prayer is often connected with incense. In the system of worship commanded by God in the book of Exodus, incense was to be burnt in the evening by Aaron the priest and his descendents on a specially designed incense altar in the Tabernacle (Exodus 30.1–10). The image of the smoke of incense ascending upward with its sweet-smelling aroma seemed best suited to picture the praises of God’s people ascending to his throne. In John’s second vision in the book of the Revelation, angelic creatures are seen in God’s throne room holding “golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (Revelation 4.7). David’s statement in psalm 140 seems to be the source of this image, which ties together the idea of incense and prayer.

There are churches that have maintained the use of incense in worship, particularly the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. The teachings of Jesus emphasize that worship is spiritual and rational in nature is made visible in a life of godliness rather than one of ritual (John 4.23–24; Romans 12.1–2). New Testament worship is remarkably free from the use of many symbols in worship—the water of baptism and the bread and wine of communion seem to be the only material and visible representations of spiritual truth the early church had. The idea of incense is, however, one of the Old Testament images of prayer that is instructive to us.

Note the second half of verse 2:

“Let my prayer be counted as incense before you and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!” (Psalm 141.2).

Today when we think of prayer we think of bowing the head and folding one’s hands. It appears from both the Old and New Testaments that standing and lifting one’s hands to God was the normal posture of prayer in the ancient world (Psalm 28.2; Lamentations 3.41; Luke 24.50; 1 Timothy 2.8). The image seems to be that of entire openness to God, holding nothing back. It doesn’t seem that the lifting of hands accompanied singing as is common today. Of course none of these things are prescribed in scripture as the way in which prayer must be done. Scripture tells us that prayer is the expression of our heart’s feelings to God—posture is unimportant, with the one exception that our posture should be culturally acceptable.

Sometimes we might pass over these details but it is important to draw from scripture all that it teaches us about worship and to distinguish what is prescribed for us to follow from what isn’t. There are many details like this in the psalms and constant reflection upon them allows us the freedom to reflect on them at length for our soul’s benefit.

Psalm 140

2010-03-27T02:20:00.000-04:00

This Davidic psalm—part of collection of eight psalms of David near the end of the Psalter—is an Individual Lament. As is common in the psalms of David, we don’t know what occasion gave rise to the psalm or when the events he describes occurred. As a Middle-Eastern king in the ancient world, his life would have been filled with intrigue both from within his people and from the surrounding nations and tribes. This psalm focuses on conspirators who, out of sheer malice, seek his harm. He prays for them to be frustrated in their plans and for God to visit upon them the evil they have planned for him. As is usual with lament psalms, this one ends with an outburst of confidence in the saving power of God:

“I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and will execute justice for the needy. Surely the righteous shall give thanks to you name; the upright shall dwell in your presence” (Psalm 140.13).

In my life I can’t think of anyone who “conspires” against me. I know there are evil people in the world. Like everyone, I experience strained relationships at times. Though I try to “live peaceably with all” (Romans 12.18) but periodically people get really angry at me. I can remember times in my life when I have felt so angry at someone that I wanted to hurt them in some way, though it has been a long time since I’ve experienced that. But all of these things make it difficult for me to relate to this psalm. How can a psalm that doesn’t relate to my life-situation speak to me and for me in worship?

I think there are two things to remember when we read a psalm like this one and feel that it is disconnected from our own experience:

First, we must recognize that not every psalm speaks for us but it does speak for God’s people somewhere in the world. We may only experience the kind of opposition of which this psalm speaks once or twice in our lives, but when we do, we can know “that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world” (1 Peter 5.9). A psalm does not have to speak for us to be useful in worship by God’s people.

Second, we must always remember that, under the new covenant, we know that our true struggle is not human and earthly but is spiritual and cosmic:

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6.12).

Using tangible and earthly examples, the Old Testament portrays the nature of the life of faith in a fallen world. The New Testament tells us of the spiritual realities that activate the aspects of human fallenness we find in the Old Testament. For example, in the Old Testament God’s people were tempted to worship idols. In the New Testament we find that there is no reality to idols (though the Old Testament asserts this as well, see for example Psalm 115.5), but there are demons who use idolatrous worship to ensnare those who worship them (1 Corinthians 8.4–6; 10.19–20). We should never think false worship is unimportant simply because we know there is no reality to the god being worshiped. Nor should we allow our children to play the Ouija board or participate in séances—these are not just “childish games.” These things are used by the enemy of souls to capture the foolish and unwary.

This is why we are told that we should always be spiritually alert:

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5.8).

This is something we should always keep in mind when reading the Old Testament. Since we have an enemy of souls who is constantly seeking to subvert our faith and faithfulness, and since he uses false worship to entice people, and since he even “disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11.14), we know there is a true conspirator who seeks to harm us. This is not ‘spiritualizing’ the Old Testament; it is simply recognizing that there is a larger spiritual conflict involved in the Christian life than even David himself was aware of.

Psalm 139

2010-03-26T02:19:00.000-04:00

To the person who trusts the LORD, the fact that he knows everything about us is both a comforting and a restraining notion. Since his knowledge is coupled with his covenant loyalty to us (“steadfast love”), we should feel secure in his strong embrace. On the other hand, if we are tempted to do something wrong, the fact that “God knows” even when no one else does, can restrain us even from secret sin.

That is the point of Psalm 139. This beautiful psalm deserves to be pondered with “all our heart”—bringing our minds, emotions, and choices before the LORD and his inerrant word. The psalm opens and closes with God’s knowledge of his people:

“O Lord, you have searched me and known me!” (verse 1)

“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (verse 23)

Note that the opening verse is a statement of fact—God knows everything! The last is a request—Please ‘know’ me in order to shape me in godliness! That is the attitude of a person who is seeking to conform his or her life to God’ will.

In the psalm, the word know is used five times of the LORD’s comprehensive knowledge—in verses 1, 2, 4, 6, and 23. The movement of the psalm carries the worshiper from wonder to commitment:

LORD, you know everything about me—I cannot fathom that fact! (vv 1–6).
LORD, I could never go anywhere that you would not embrace me and guide me! (vv 7–12).
LORD, you even saw me, formed me, and loved me before I was born! (vv 13–16).
LORD, I delight in my knowledge of your knowledge! (vv 17–18).
LORD, I willingly give you my complete loyalty—banish wickedness from your presence! (vv 19–22).
LORD, in light of your searching knowledge, turn your searchlight on me and banish wickedness from my soul! (vv 23–24).

It is important that we use God’s word as it was meant to be used. This is especially true of the psalms which are the inspired expressions of holy people to the LORD. God has given us these words to make our own. If we allow ourselves to trace David’s thoughts through this psalm, owning them ourselves and considering how his reflections are shown as well in our own lives, God uses that to bring glory to himself by shaping our lives as instruments of his glory.

NOTE: This psalm has figured prominently among Christians and Jews in the abortion issue in the United States. Verses 13–16 in which David expresses wonder at the LORD’s involvement in his pre-birth development, indicate that even before birth, he was a “person” whom God “knew” in depth. There has long been a tradition (long before this was a political issue) among more orthodox Jews that life begins at “quickening,” that is, at the point the mother begins to feel the baby’s movement in the womb—while this point is not universally held among Jewish interpreters, it does have an ancient pedigree. We should note that it is also held by Muslims and among some Christian groups.

One can understand this perspective—in pre-scientific cultures, pregnancy was not certain until “quickening” (which by the way is still a “quasi-medical” term) which was the first discernable sign of “life.” This helps to explain why Jewish people have less frequently taken a stand about abortion on demand than have Christians—though there are notable exceptions and devout Jews are rarely ardently pro-choice and often oppose abortion beyond the first trimester.

This psalm, however, seems to say that life begins before “quickening.” This is found in David’s words in verse 15:

“My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth” (Psalm 139.15).

The phrase “when I was made in secret” means before my existence was known by my mother, before any person knew I was being formed…except God. The “depths of the earth” is parallel to “in secret” and is a poetic phrase to denote the womb as a dark and hidden place. In other words, the psalm invites us to marvel that from the moment of our conception, God knew everything about us even to the length of our lives and the day of our death (v 16). As the psalmist said,

“Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it” (Psalm 139.6).

On the complexity of Jewish tradition on abortion, see the following articles:
“What Do Orthodox Jews Believe About Abortion and Why?” By Judith Shulevitz, http://www.slate.com/id/1005956/.
“Judaism and Abortion,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaism_and_abortion.

Psalm 138

2010-03-25T02:18:00.000-04:00

Psalm 138 begins a series of eight psalms by King David, forming a final collection of Davidic psalms within the Psalter. This is a Psalm of Trust of an individual expressing gratitude to God for showing his steadfast love in his constant care for his servant. It may have been connected with a voluntary thank offering David made in the Tabernacle (v 2).

The psalm contains many significant statements. For example, David seems to make a prediction of the future impact of the covenant God made with him (2 Samuel 7) to give him a lasting dynasty resulting in the final king, the Messiah:

“All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O LORD, for they have heard the words of your mouth, and they shall sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord” (Psalm 138.4–5).

This has not yet come true, but at the second appearance of Christ will become a universal reality when “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ” (Revelation 11.15). The significance of the Davidic covenant should not be lost on us—in Jesus Christ, we are the recipients of the blessings promised to David.

There is an ethical statement of importance in the psalm as well:

“For though the LORD is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar” (Psalm 138.6).

That God distinguishes between the proud and the humble seems like a common truth to us but in the ancient world it was an astounding statement. In ancient cultures, the principle that “might makes right” seemed to be almost universal. For the God of the Hebrews to assert that he ‘regarded’ the lowly was a counter-cultural statement.

Finally, a statement of bold confidence:

“The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me” (Psalm 138.8).

David was certain, in light of God’s promises, of God’s care for him in the past, and of his experiences of God’s care and deliverance, that God had a purpose for his life. God was actively working to make that a reality and David was confident that he would bring all of his plans for him to pass.

All of these are statements we should allow ourselves to ponder—carefully and at length. We don’t simply read the psalms as poetry or as interesting words of religious insight; we read them as the prayers of holy people whom the Holy Spirit moved in and through to compose words that have divine approval. God owns these words of confidence as the affirmations of faith that he desires for us to express today.

Psalm 137

2010-03-24T02:17:00.001-04:00

In 1999, Laura and I took a team of people from Grace Church to Albania to help in relief camps during the Kosovar Crisis. We divided the team between camps near the capitol city of Tiranë and working with our sister-church in Shkodër. When I returned from a trip to the US Embassy in Skopje, Macedonia, I heard a story from our team in Shkodër. A family of Kosovar Albanians told of seeing two Serbian soldiers hold an infant by his legs between them and rip him in two. I don’t even know how to process a story like that except to say with the psalmist, “O LORD, how long?” (Psalm 6.3; 94.3).

Throughout history, ethnic conflict has been characterized by extreme cruelty, as the Bible indicates (2 Kings 8.12; Hosea 10.14; 13.16; Nahum 3.10) which was especially true of the Babylonians (Habakkuk 1.5—2.1). This psalm shows us that the Israelites had experienced that in the defeat, destruction and exile at the hand of the Babylonian Empire.

This is the only psalm that was clearly written during the exile. The psalmist was a captive in Babylon somewhere near the Euphrates River (v 1). Their captives demanded that they “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” (v 3). Evidently the Jewish people were known for their unique worship and their love for their sanctuary in Jerusalem; their captors asked them to ‘perform.’

In reading the psalm one feels the plaintive cry of the captives: “How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?” (v 4). The psalm is a mixture of sorrow, outrage, commitment, request for justice and, finally, a curse on the Babylonians.

The final line is the troubling one:

“Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!” (Psalm 137.9).

There is little question that the psalmist’s plaintive request is based on the personal experiences of the Jewish people at the hand of the Babylonians. But how can we square this statement with the love of the gentle Savior or sinners?

There are a few things we have to keep in mind:

First, this ‘curse’ is a faithful expression of the old covenant ethic of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" (Exodus 21.24; Leviticus 24.19–20). This is often called lex talionis, or retributive justice, which is still loosely applied as a principle of our legal system. Today we might say, ‘The punishment should fit the crime.’

Second, we live in a world where there is real and active evil, as the story of the Kosovar infant above indicates. Unlike certain viewpoints today that seem to deny the reality of radical evil, the Bible affirms it. This statement is a recognition of the reality of human sin and divine judgment.

Third, this statement does not express personal revenge but expresses a longing for justice to be done. In fact, it is technically not a request but a statement of what will happen in light of God’s justice.

On the basis of the Bible’s teaching about the universality of sin and of the need for forgiveness, we must realize that even what the most wicked of people actually do is rooted in the human heart in the state of sin. We dare not think that there is a constitutional difference between ourselves and the Nazis who murdered millions of Jews, Slavs, and Romani—the only difference is in the maturity of the noxious fruit the seed of sin in the human heart has produced. In terms of our relationship with God, we are as culpable for sins of the heart as for sins of action. However, in ‘horizontal’ terms—in our relationship with others in society—we are only responsible for our actions. In other words, in human society we are not guilty for having sinful hearts but we are guilty for evil actions that harm others.

There are actions in this fallen world that demand the words of the final line of this psalm. At times, given the principle of talionic justice, it happens in this life. But even when it doesn’t, believers can be confident that some day the “God of justice” (Isaiah 30.18) will right all of those wrongs.

Psalm 136

2010-03-23T02:16:00.000-04:00

This whole psalm has a structure that is only found in small parts of other psalms (for example, Psalm 118.1–4). After each phrase is the responsive sentence, “For his steadfast love endures forever.” This is obviously a liturgical device, still used in some churches, where the lines are read by a priest or cantor and the responsive sentence is recited by the congregation.

Despite the herky-jerky feeling one gets when reading this psalm, the psalm effectively tells a story in the first line of each verse. The lines move chronologically through the biblical account of the history of Israel:

Thank the LORD, the true God of history (vv 1–3). The phrases “God of gods” and “Lord of lords” come from Deuteronomy 10.17, a passage underlining God’s sovereign power and moral rule that demands a spiritual commitment from his people to live righteous lives.
Thank the LORD, the Creator of the Universe (vv 4–9). This section reflects the creation account of Genesis 1.1–10.
Thank the LORD, who delivered Israel from Egypt (vv 10–16). Using phrases from Exodus and Deuteronomy (for example, “with a strong hand and an outstretched arm,” Deuteronomy 4.34), this section focuses on the LORD’s deliverance of his people from bondage and protection in the wilderness.
Thank the LORD, who gave the Promised Land to his people (vv 17–22). In fulfillment of his promise to Abraham, the LORD gave them victory and allowed him to become established as his people.
Thank the LORD, who continues to care for his people (vv 23–25). The fact that he “remembered us in our low estate…and rescued us from our foes” (vv 23–24) could refer to the deliverance from the Exile, it could also refer to many deliverances Israel experienced during his long history.
Thank the LORD, the God of heaven (v 26). Unlike the first three verses which refer to God in terms that come straight from Deuteronomy, this title, “the God of heaven,” is found throughout Israel’s history (Genesis 24.7; Ezra 1.2; Nehemiah 1.4; Jonah 1.9).

Like many psalms this one does not focus on a specific event or time period but on the whole of God’s sovereign rule over his people. When the worshiping community sings this together, they recall how God has been active for their benefit over all of history.

Yet it is the line which is repeated in each verse, “For his steadfast love endures forever,” that has the greatest impact. While the historical recounting is interesting and informative, the continual reminder, repeated by the worshipers is the one we remember. God’s “steadfast love,” that is, his covenant loyalty to his people, is the most important thing we carry with us—despite our struggles and periodic unfaithfulness, the LORD remains faithful to us. It is the reason that Paul said:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5.6–8).

Psalm 135

2010-03-20T02:15:00.001-04:00

Hebrew readers of the psalms have tried to determine why the psalms were put in the order in which we presently find them. Apart from some parts of the psalm—like the Psalms of Ascent that we have just finished (Psalms 120–134)—most of the psalms seem to be in a random order in terms of authorship, theme, and style. Many who have reflected on the psalm have often pointed out that one psalm will be ‘stitched’ to the next by a common word or phrase. This psalm has a clear example of this. The previous psalm refers to,

“…the servants of the LORD, who stand by night in the house of the LORD (Psalm 134.1).

This unique phrase is mirrored in Psalm 135,

“O servants of the LORD, who stand in the house of the LORD, in the courts of the house of our God!” (Psalm 135.2).

This may have aided in memorization of the Psalter which was common among both Jews and Christians until modern times.

This psalm is a Hymn of Praise to the LORD for his works on behalf of Israel. The singers begin with the acknowledgment that God has chosen Israel for himself that through them he might bless the world (v 4). This focus on election is common in the Bible in contexts in which believers are urged to live in appreciation for God’s sovereign grace (like Ephesians 1.3–14).

Since he has set apart his people for himself, the LORD is to be praised as the Creator (vv 5–7), as the Redeemer from bondage in Egypt (vv 8–9), and as the Conqueror of the Canaanite nations when his people went in to possess the land (vv 10–12). Unlike the vain idols of the nations which are just images that cannot speak, see, or hear because they have no real existence, Israel’s God is the Lord of heaven and earth.

The clear liturgical purpose of this psalm is seen in the closing lines which call upon different categories of worshipers to give praise to the LORD:

O house of Israel, bless the Lord!
O house of Aaron, bless the Lord!
O house of Levi, bless the Lord!
You who fear the Lord, bless the Lord!
Blessed be the Lord from Zion, he who dwells in Jerusalem! Praise the Lord! (Psalm 135.19–21).

We are always called to remember the ways our God has acted on behalf of his people—especially as we now look back at the cross and empty tomb—and rejoice that he has chosen us to be the means of blessing the entire world through Jesus Christ.

Psalm 134

2010-03-19T02:14:00.001-04:00

When a person sneezes, in many cultures, others are taught to say “God bless you.” I don’t know where this custom came from but the word “bless” here is obviously used in its basic meaning of “to confer or invoke well-being upon someone.” In the Bible, to bless someone carries the idea of requesting that the LORD confer some kind of prosperity or enrichment on a person—physical, social, material, or spiritual. When God promised Abraham, “I will bless you” (Genesis 12.2), it was fulfilled, at least in part, by Abraham becoming a powerful, Middle-Eastern sheik, wealthy in flocks and herds. Of course it doesn’t always mean to enrich materially—for God to bless a person means essentially that he or she becomes spiritually strong and influential, not merely rich.

But obviously that idea doesn’t apply to God—we can’t invoke well-being on God. When the word used of blessing God means “to honor as unsurpassed in being, power, and holiness.” This blessing can only properly be ascribed to the LORD—only he is blessed. In fact, in the Bible, a ‘blessing’ before eating never meant to ‘bless the food;’ it meant to bless God for providing food for us. The Hebrew blessing on a meal begins, “Blessed are You, O LORD our God, King of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ Jewish_prayers_and_blessings#After_the_meal).

The last of the pilgrim psalms, Psalm 134, uses this word in both of its senses.

“Come, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, who stand by night in the house of the LORD! Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord! May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth" (Psalm 134.1–3).

The brief song functions as a fitting ‘benediction’ to the Psalms of Ascent, which were sung by the pilgrims as they traveled from their homes throughout Israel to the temple in Jerusalem to celebrate the three yearly festivals. Psalms 120–134 seem to move from general themes of worship, commitment, and praise to specific themes related to the temple worship. This one has obvious reference to the temple personnel, the priests and Levites, who served in the temple in all the various ways. Some were even assigned to be there at night—it may be that during the feasts so many worshipers came with voluntary offerings for various reasons that the sacrifices needed to be offered throughout the night to accommodate all of the needs.

We no longer have an earthly temple, a priesthood, or a sacrificial system—all of these were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, we are to do the same thing—“Bless the LORD!” And we have the same need to ask God to bless others in all the different ways that our earthly pilgrimage can bring out in people’s lives.

Psalm 133

2010-03-18T02:13:00.000-04:00

One of the unique teachings of the Bible is that our love for God and our love for others are closely connected. The apostle John asserted that, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4.20). The true religion—even in its Old Covenant expression—is not about rituals flawlessly executed but about relationships between people.

As the pilgrim worshipers approach Jerusalem to worship in the temple, they are reminded of this when they sing Psalm 133:

“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore” (Psalm 133.1–3).

True believers who share a common faith in their covenant-keeping God acknowledge that they share a bond that transcends earthly and physical ties.

Yet the psalm says more than that. The singers refer to a specific sign of unity: “the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes” (Psalm 133.2). The simile is significant: it pictures the ordination of a priest—a male descendent of Aaron, the brother of Moses—when at his consecration to the priesthood, fragrant oil was poured on his head (Exodus 30.22–33; Leviticus 8.12). This oil symbolized his dedication as a member of a fraternity who could provide access to for themselves and others through the sacrificial system.

Yet it was God’s intention that the whole nation would be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19.6). Through their united obedience to the LORD, they would function as those people who would be mediators for the rest of the world. This would require a consciously pursued intention to fulfill their destiny to be a blessing to “all the families of the earth” (Genesis 12.3).

What the Old Covenant pointed toward as a goal is fulfilled under the New Covenant. Christ, the true High Priest, has fulfilled all that the Aaronic priesthood pointed toward. Paul’s words to Timothy, “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2.5), assure us he is the only priest we need for full access to God. Through him, all who believe become “a holy priesthood” (1 Peter 2.5, 9). Like the Aaronic priests of old, we share together in a fraternity who are called to become the means of blessing to the world.

Psalm 132

2010-03-17T02:12:00.000-04:00

David was the king who united the tribes into a kingdom, formed a central government, and most importantly, fulfilled God’s promise to appoint a central sanctuary for worship. He longed to build a temple to replace the tabernacle which, until his reign, was at the city of Shiloh. God, however, forbid him from building it but announced that David’s son and successor, Solomon, would be allowed to build the temple. In preparation for the building of the temple in the next generation, David did two things: He had the Ark of the Covenant moved into a tabernacle in Jerusalem and he amassed a great fortune in materials in preparation for Solomon to build the temple (see 2 Samuel 6–7; 1 Chronicles 21–29).

This song for the pilgrim worshipers recalls David’s pivotal role in providing the place of worship to which they were now making their way as individuals and families:

“Remember, O Lord, in David's favor, all the hardships he endured, how he swore to the Lord and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob, ‘I will not enter my house or get into my bed, I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob’” (Psalm 132.1–5).

His most righteous act—moving the Ark to Jerusalem—is viewed as the fulfillment of David’s vow to God. In the psalm, the worshipers not only ask God to recall David’s obedience, but they recall (almost word-for-word!) the very words of Solomon at the dedication of the temple:

“Arise, O Lord, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. Let your priests be clothed with righteousness, and let your saints shout for joy. For the sake of your servant David, do not turn away the face of your anointed one” (Psalm 132.8–10; see 2 Chronicles 7.41–42).

But the psalm doesn’t end with looking back at the glory days of David and Solomon. These songs were sung by people who had gone through the great tragedy of the Exile and the difficulties of the Restoration. They sang these ancient songs to remind themselves of their privileges and destiny as the people of God, regardless of their present circumstances. So in the second half of the psalm, the worshipers focus on how the heritage of David and Solomon is relevant to them as God’s chastened people. Note the themes they bring before God and what they imply about their requests:

vv 11–12: You promised David an eternal dynasty—revive our kingdom, O God.
vv 13–15: You promised to provide abundantly for your obedient people—provide for us, LORD, for we are poor.
vv 16: You promised to “clothe our priests with salvation”—enable them to teach and lead in worship for your glory so that we may “shout with joy.”
vv 17–18: You promised our kings would overcome our enemies—restore the monarchy, LORD, and defeat our enemies.

Thus, this song becomes a declaration of faith by the pilgrim worshipers that God will fulfill his promises, promote their peace and security, and establish his kingdom ruled by his anointed Davidic king.

Today, when we pray these words, we know that what they asked for pointed to a fulfillment in Christ in a way that the Old Testament worshipers little anticipated. For us they are still in the process of fulfillment because we, too, look forward to the second appearance of the Messiah in which the last line of the psalm will become a reality:

"His enemies I will clothe with shame, but on him his crown will shine” (Psalm 132.18).

Yet here is a psalm that is useful for God’s people of all ages because it reminds us of the promises that began with Abraham, “the father of us all” (Romans 4.16), and will only be fulfilled when the Lord says “Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21.5).

Psalm 131

2010-03-16T02:11:00.000-04:00

As the pilgrim worshipers approach their destination, they anticipate being at the place where the LORD chose “to make his name dwell there” (Deuteronomy 16.11). They would come to the temple where they knew the instruments of worship were set up and used regularly in the sacrificial system. Hidden from their sight, in the inner room of the temple—the “Most Holy Place”—were the golden cherubim standing over the Ark of the Covenant with its cover, the “mercy seat,” representing the throne of God. Though it is evident that God is the “Possessor of heaven and earth” (Genesis 14.22) and that he heard prayer “from heaven” (2 Chronicles 6.23, 25, 35; 7.14), he promised to put his name in the Most Holy Place and hear pray that was offered there. Thus the people came to the temple anticipating that in some unique way, they would experience the presence of God.

Psalm 131 is a Psalm of Confidence in which the worshipers reflect on the state of heart that the presence of God should produce in worshipers:

“O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me” (Psalm 131.1–2).

In our fast-paced society, we rarely reflect on the state of heart that one should have in the presence of God. Yet this psalm pictures the inner feelings of righteousness as humility, calm, quietness, and contentment. The psalmist describes his soul “like a weaned child with its mother”—apparently picturing the satisfaction of a weaned child, no longer frantic for food, resting content in his mother’s arms.

In many places the Bible describes being in the presence of God as ‘the soul at rest:’

“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you” (Isaiah 26.3).

“For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, ‘In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.’” (Isaiah 30.15).

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4.6-7).

The living God, being eternal, experiences no change in the state of his being—he is at utter peace, in a state of perfect composure. All things are at all times under his control. He rules the world by his eternal decree through which he “works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1.11).

More than that, he is at work within his children acting always for our best interests to promote “the peaceful fruit of righteousness” in our lives (Hebrews 12.10–11). When we are told to, “Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually!” (Psalm 105.4), it is the serene presence of the LORD that we are to seek. On earthly pilgrimage, we cannot always experience this peace but we must seek God’s presence on our way in which that peace can flood our lives and give us assurance that our way will lead to his presence.

The History of Israel in the Psalms

2010-03-14T18:52:00.002-04:00

Like any nation, the history of the people of Israel is very complex especially because they remained a ‘nation’ in a fixed territory over much of fifteen hundred years in the ancient world (from approximately 1400 BC until 70 AD). Of course, the descendents of the same people formed the modern state of Israel in 1948 AD by a United Nations’ charter but that’s a part of modern history.

The psalms were apparently written between the life time of Moses (Psalm 90, ca. 1400 BC) and the time after the exile (Psalm 137, after 538 BC). Though they were written between those two dates, they cover all of Israel’s history. Indeed we can say the psalms deal with all of world history, since they contain many references to creation and the flood at the beginning of human history. They also, by prophetic prediction, refer to future events that have not yet occurred like the coming of the Messiah as a Warrior-King (Psalm 2, Revelation 19). It is helpful, therefore, to know something about the history of Israel in order to understand the psalms. The following brief overview will help in placing the places and events referred to by the psalm-writers in the context of their history

Israel’s Pre-History (before the Nation)

Before Israel was a nation, it had a long pre-history. In the Bible, this history is traced back to the very beginning of the world in the record of the Creation, the Fall, and the Flood found in Genesis 1–11. These records documented for the people of Israel God’s basic purpose for all humankind and traced the roots of their heritage from the descendents of Shem, the son of Noah. (This, by the way, is why the Jewish people are called ‘Semites’ and to be prejudiced against them is called ‘anti-semitism.’)

Abraham: The history of Israel as a distinct people begins in Genesis 12 with the appearance of Abraham whom God called to live in the land of Canaan (the later, and modern, location of the nation of Israel). God gave Abraham a multifaceted promise concerning himself and his descendents, and that all of the nations of the earth would ultimately be blessed through the descendents of Abraham.

The Patriarchs: The patriarchs refer to Abraham and his descendents over four generations:

First Generation: Abraham
Second Generation: Isaac
Third Generation: Jacob, later renamed Israel
Fourth Generation: The Twelve sons of Jacob. In birth order, they were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin. The remainder of the Old Testament is the history of these ‘sons of Israel’ who later became the nation.

Moses and the Exodus: All of the above is found in the book of Genesis. When we open the book of Exodus, however, the situation is different. The twelve sons have, over 400 years, become twelve tribes of people in slavery in Egypt. Moses is the leader raised up by God to deliver the tribes from bondage and to form them into a nation. After bringing ten plagues on the king of Egypt, Moses leads the people out of bondage in the most referred-to event in the entire Old Testament: the Passover and the Exodus (meaning ‘exit’) from Egypt (Exodus 12–15). Moses leads them to a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula where God reveals himself to the elders of the people and enters into covenant relationship with them, fulfilling some of the promises made to Abraham. At Mount Sinai, God says:

“You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19.4–6).

It is at Mount Sinai that Israel is changed from being twelve loosely-federated tribes and forged into a nation with a common identity as the people of God. It is at this point that the history of Israel as a nation begins.

Israel’s History as a Nation

The Wilderness Generation: Before Israel can claim their possession of the land promised to Abraham, they disobey God in the wilderness by refusing to trust his power to go up and conquer the land. As a result, that whole generation, is condemned to wander in the desert for forty years. As they wander, every person over age twenty is to die in the desert so that a new generation can be raised up to possess the land. This event is the subject of a whole psalm (Psalm 95) and is referenced by others.

The Conquest and Possession of the Land: Finally, in approximately 1404 BC, the people are brought to the verge of the Promised Land after Moses dies in the wilderness. Under Moses’ successor, Joshua, the tribes go into the Promised Land, dispossess many of the tribes, and divide up the land among their twelve tribes.

Before the Monarchy: After the nation was settled in the land they entered a long and distressing period that is recorded in the books of Judges and the beginning of 1 Samuel (approximately 1360–1084 BC). During this time “there was no king in Israel” and, without a central organizing force established by God, there was no individual self-restraint and moral and political chaos resulted (see Judges 17.6; 18.1; 19.1; 21.25). God periodically raised up a “Judge” to act as a political deliverer of one or more of the tribes.

The United Monarchy: In an act of foolishness, the tribes request the prophet Samuel to appoint for them “a king to judge us like all the nations” (1 Samuel 8.6). This displeased the LORD because it meant the people were rejecting his direct rule over them (the theocracy) out of jealousy of the other kingdoms. This led to the disastrous rule of Saul from the tribe of Benjamin. Finally, God raised up a king of his own choosing, a teenager from the tribe of Judah named David. 1 Samuel 16—2 Samuel 5 record David’s rise from a teenage shepherd to a renegade leader to the king of Judah (the largest tribe) and finally to the rule of all of the tribes of Israel. Then 2 Samuel 6—1 Kings 3 tells how David established the central government with the central place of worship in the city of Jerusalem that he captured from the Jebusites, a remaining Canaanite tribe within the territory of Israel. Under the reigns of David and his son, Solomon, the nation was forged into a kingdom with a centralized government and worship. God established a special covenant relationship with David and his descendents, promising that one of his male descendents would always reign over Israel until the coming of his final descendent, the Messiah (2 Samuel 7). These events are referred to over and over again in the psalms which underscore the importance of the Davidic dynasty and the security of the promises to David.

The Divided Kingdom: Israel. Unfortunately, under the rule of Solomon’s foolish son, Rehoboam, the northern tribes broke away and formed a separate government (1 Kings 12–13) calling their nation ‘Israel,’ in distinction from the tribe which dominated the southern territory, the tribe of David and his descendents, ‘Judah.’ The history of the nation thus divides into two parts: The history of the northern kingdom (Israel) and the history of the southern kingdom (Judah). While the break was never as complete as we might think—since many northerners continued in their allegiance to the temple in Jerusalem and to the Davidic kings—it was devastating. The wicked kings of Israel sought to establish a rival religion that involved a mixture of pagan practices with the ancient Hebrew religion, the establishment of a rival priesthood not ordained by God, and worship in degrading ways on the “high places” (ancient Canaanite mountain shrines). The books of 1 and 2 Kings record the events going on in the northern kingdom; the books of 1 and 2 Chronicles, on the other hand, tend to ignore the northern kingdom and focus only on the rule of the descendents of David.

The Divided Kingdom: Judah. The history of Judah is the history of the relatively faithful people. They retained the Davidic dynasty, the priesthood of the descendents of Aaron (the brother of Moses), and the temple worship in Jerusalem. We have to say relatively faithful, however, because there was a great deal of influence from the northern kingdom and from the surrounding Canaanite tribes that remained in the land. Degraded worship at the “high places” also took place in Judah just as in Israel. Some of the Davidic kings were so wicked that they attempted with some success to turn the temple into a Canaanite shrine including activities like cult prostitution and child sacrifice. Though there were reforming kings who sought to restore pure worship, the history of Judah is one, long, slow decline from the heights David reached. Many of the psalms focus on the Davidic dynasty and worship in the temple, recalling the glory days and longing for God’s revival of his people and of the pure covenant religion of Moses.

The Exile: Part One—Israel. Finally, the northern kingdom was brought under the judgment of God and allowed to be conquered by the Assyrian Empire in 722 BC. The inhabitants of Israel were scattered into various territories in an attempt to erase their national identity. This attempt was largely successful and, from that point on, we lose historical track of the ten northern tribes of Israel.

The Exile: Part Two—Judah. Judah retained a slim hold on nationhood until, in 605 BC, they fell to the Babylonian Empire. The people, too, were deported from the land into various parts of the Babylonian Empire in three waves—605, 597, and 586 BC. In the last wave, the temple itself was completely destroyed. Only the poorest people of Judah, the subsistence farmers with no official government position, were allowed to stay in the land.

The Restoration. We might think that the history of the nation of Israel would end with the exile. Yet God had promised from the days of Moses that the people’s rebellion would lead eventually to their exile after which he would restore them as a chastened and obedient nation to their land and heritage (Deuteronomy 28–30). That is just what he did when, by a decree of the Medo-Persian king, Cyrus, the people were allowed to leave the countries and cities to which they had been exiled and return to the land of Israel in 538 BC. Those who returned rebuilt the temple (515 BC) and later, under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah, rebuilt the city of Jerusalem and its walls (by 445 BC). Some of the psalms, especially some of the Ascent Psalms (120–134) and Psalm 137, refer to the events of the exile and restoration. You can feel the sorrow and brokenness that resulted from such a devastating event.

We have no idea how many of those who were from the Northern kingdom returned at to the land in the restoration. The historical record seems to indicate that the returning exiles were mostly from the Southern kingdom; yet many faithful Israelites of the different tribes must have moved to the Southern kingdom to be close to the temple, the priesthood, and the king in the generations before the exile. We do know, however, that all twelve tribes were represented and were again in the land after the exile, for the people of Israel kept very careful genealogical records over generations. Those who returned, however, identified themselves as ‘Judahites” since they wanted to be identified with the relatively faithful people of God—that, by the way, is why the people of Israel after the exile became called ‘Jews,’ meaning, ‘those from Judah.’ That, however, is more a part of the story of the New Testament and the Old.

Psalm 130

2010-03-13T02:10:00.000-05:00

The last five of the fifteen Psalms of Ascent (Psalms 120–134) seem to point to the pilgrim worshipers arriving at Jerusalem for the festival—each of them refers to specific people, places, or events that would have been found in the temple worship. Of course, the whole purpose of the pilgrim journey to Jerusalem for the three major feasts was engagement in temple worship and all that the festival entailed. We must remember that the typical Israelite who lived outside of the city of Jerusalem (as most of them did) would not have attended anything at the temple except during one of the festivals. It simply was too far away for regular attendance and nothing in the law prescribed regular temple attendance apart from the required feasts. The normal life of worship would have happened in the home and the local community.

This psalm falls into a small category of lament psalms, called ‘penitential psalms’ (Psalms 6; 32; 38; 51; 102; 130; 143). In these psalms the writer laments the situation he has brought himself into by his own sin. Under the Old Covenant, believers could confess their sins to God at any time but the assurance of forgiveness was dependent on sacrifice in the temple. The prescription in Leviticus 4 for the offering of atonement included these instructions:

“Thus shall he do with the bull…. And the priest shall make atonement for them, and they shall be forgiven. And he shall carry the bull outside the camp and burn it up as he burned the first bull; it is the sin offering for the assembly” (Leviticus 4.20-21).

All this lies in the background of Psalm 130. We might picture the pilgrim worshipers ascending the hill on which the city is located and singing this song. As they ascend, the song moves from the depths to the heights, from guilt confessed to forgiveness experienced and proclaimed. This is what they anticipated as they went to the feast. They would be a part of the offering of sacrifice—perhaps even offer one themselves for their own covenant transgressions—and hear the officiating priest pronounce the word of forgiveness based on the atonement accepted by God according to his own express directions in the law.

The song moves them to confess their individual sins, acknowledging that only God’s forgiveness can provide the remedy. As they do this, they wait, as the worshipers pictured in Leviticus four must have waited for the sin offering to be completed outside the camp and for the returning priest to pronounce forgiveness and release. In the intervening time, as they wait for this event to be completed, the singers exhort one another in song:

“O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities” (Psalm 130.7–8).

Thus, this psalm excites within the worshipers the fulfillment of what they long for and what was promised to the believing Israelite through the sacrificial system—restored fellowship with their covenant God.

Now for us under the new covenant, the situation is a bit different because the reality has swallowed up the picture the law provided. We no longer wait for an ineffectual sacrifice to be offered as a token of the final sacrifice to come; now we look back to the final sacrifice of the Lamb of God offered on the altar of the cross. We longer have to wait for a human priest to pronounce forgiveness because the final forgiveness has been confirmed by the One who was both High Priest and sacrificial offering of atonement at the same time. He confirmed it when he cried out “It is finished!” from the cross (John 19.30). We do not have to wait for a festival or holy day or travel to Jerusalem to have the assurance of forgiveness and restoration to fellowship with God because we worship in Spirit and in truth.

Nevertheless this song fits our worship today because we, too, need to confess our sins and look to the blood of Christ for the basis of restored fellowship with God as we travel our earthly pilgrimage. This is what we rejoice in whenever we meet together to give praise to our Sin-bearer, Savior, and Lord:

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1.9).

Psalm 129

2010-03-12T02:09:00.000-05:00

Two of the three yearly festivals—Passover and Tabernacles—commemorated the release from Egyptian bondage in the Exodus. To recall Israel’s youth, as in verse one of this psalm, is to recall that event and what it taught the Israelites about suffering and privilege. In the same way, we Christians look to the events of the cross and the empty tomb as the source of our faith and the basis of our lessons about suffering and privilege. You can almost hear the cantor (song leader) exhort the worshipers in the first line:

“’Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth’—let Israel now say…” (Psalm 129.1).

And the pilgrim worshipers respond:

“Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me” (Psalm 129.2),

and so on.

This song allows the travelers to recall how their history from their ‘youth’ up has been one of struggle and suffering. (This is still true of the Jewish people to this day but that is another story.) Some of their suffering was unjust (the Egyptian bondage), some was self-inflicted (the distressing period of the Judges), and some was the judgment of God on their rebellion (the Exile). Despite all this, they have many times experienced the deliverance of the LORD:

“The Lord is righteous; he has cut the cords of the wicked” (Psalm 129.4).

As the pilgrims rejoice in the first half of the psalm that their persecutors have never prevailed over them, in the second half they request that their persecutors will never prevail over them.

The image used is that of grass—a general term for various kinds of field grasses, including hay and straw. In this case, it is growing on a rooftop. While this sounds odd to us, in many parts of the world, it is common. I even saw it on homes in Germany when I was there in 2006—a few inches of earth on a metal roof, planted with some type of grass seed. The grass was flourishing, at least at the time of my visit, required minimal maintenance and must have kept the house cool in the summer and warm in the winter. From the farming perspective, however, this kind of grass is worthless:

“like the grass on the housetops which withers before it grows up, with which the reaper does not fill his hand nor the binder of sheaves his arms” (Psalm 129.6–7).

It doesn’t grow to maturity and isn’t worth ‘harvesting,’ because there wouldn’t be enough of it to worry about.

This is not a vindictive statement about Israel’s persecutors; rather it is a statement of the emptiness and vanity of those who persecute God’s people. In the book of Ruth we read this interchange between the farmer Boaz and his harvesters:

“And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. And he said to the reapers, ‘The Lord be with you!’ And they answered, ‘The Lord bless you’” (Ruth 2.4).

That sounds quaint to us…or just plain silly—What employer would ever speak to his employees like that? But other parts of the world (as well as English novels from the 1800’s, like ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’ by Thomas Hardy) show us that these interchanges were at one time common where the centrality of God in human life was still acknowledged. The end of Psalm 129, however, indicates that such a cheerful exchange of blessing would never be spoken over the lives and actions of those who persecuted God’s people (Psalm 129.8); their foolish actions were swallowed up in God’s deliverance so that they were as meaningless as wisps of grass that blow away in the wind.

As we reach for the eternal kingdom, this psalm reminds us that though it is “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14.22), we shall some day find that those who opposed God’s purposes are completely forgotten on that day when,

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21.4)

Psalm 128

2010-03-11T02:08:00.000-05:00

This psalm follows on Psalm 127 as another Wisdom Psalm reflecting on the blessings of wisdom and covenant obedience to the pilgrim worshipers. Remember, the pilgrims are walking to Jerusalem as families and clans (see Psalm 120; compare Luke 2.41–51). On the journey, as they sing and talk, they are called by this psalm to reflect on the family as the center of God’s blessings and to measure how their own family reflects the divine ideal.

The covenant with Abraham was established with Abraham and his offspring (literally ‘seed,’ Genesis 17.7; 28.4; Galatians 3.16). This covenant was incorporated into the Mosaic covenant which God made with the people of Israel, the physical offspring of Abraham. The solidarity of the family was thus built into the old covenant and so (male) children were circumcised on the eighth day of life to indicate that they belonged to the descendents of Abraham to whom the promises were made (Genesis 17.14).

In the modern world, family has become a vague concept—most people spend much of their adult lives trying not to get pregnant and have children—the advent of widely-available and effective birth control in the 1960’s has made this possible. Family members separate geographically, and the very idea of who and what makes up a ‘family’ is disputed. It was not this way in the ancient world—indeed, in much of the world until the last fifty years!

Most people in the ancient world lived as subsistence farmers—this means they lived off the land for the majority of their food and clothing. They may have used some of their produce or had some skill that was used to barter for goods they didn’t produce. In that setting, children were particularly valuable for, even at a young age, they could contribute to what was produced from the land or flocks. To have children was a sign of God’s blessing. To raise them well was the chief responsibility of life.

This psalm reflects that attitude:

“Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the LORD” (Psalm 128.3–4).

Using the imagery of a most fruitful and fast growing crop—the grape vine, which produced food and drink (unfermented and fermented), as well as dyes, raisins, seeds to plant more vines, and husks to feed to animals (the dried, empty skins)—the psalmist honors the blessings of family. The wife is like a fruitful and mature vine that sends out the shoots on which the fruit grows. The children around the table represent the vitality and promise and exuberance of continued prosperity for the family. The image of the children around the family table shows the importance of a family eating together—it is a fulfillment of covenant faithfulness, a sign of God’s provision for the daily needs of the family, and an experience of fellowship and life together in community.

While we need to consider the ‘translation’ of old covenant into new covenant terms, this psalm obviously has meaning to us. The Bible does not encourage people to have as many children as possible. The command to “Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1.28), however, has never been rescinded. Whether we have one child or ten children, the principles of the psalm are still true—the children of godly parents are an indication of God’s blessings on our lives.

(Note: The NIV translates the word “children” in v 3 as “sons” (also in Psalm 127.3–4). While the word is literally ‘sons,’ it was often used generically in the Hebrew Bible with the meaning of “children,” which is the translation used in all other modern English Bibles. Unfortunately, the translation “sons” implies a favoring of male offspring over female, a view that I don’t think is widely reflected in the Hebrew Bible.)

Psalm 127

2010-03-10T02:07:00.003-05:00

In March of 1983, I presented my thesis to the ‘Old Testament and Semitic Languages Department’ at Dallas Theological Seminary. It was entitled, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 127.” A bound copy is in the Turpin Library—I can’t imagine it has ever been checked out in the three decades since then! It’s not the most exciting reading ever produced.

This psalm has always been a favorite of mine. It has sixty-three words in Hebrew. I know because I studied every one. It is only one of two psalms written by Solomon—his birth name, Jedidiah, which means ‘Beloved by Yah(weh)’ is referred to in a word play in v 2b, “his beloved.” It has a couple of sticky translation issues: the “house” in v 1 could either refer to the temple or to Solomon’s home; v 2b could either mean, “For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep” (NASB) or “for he gives sleep to his beloved” (ESV)—I argued for the latter. The relationship between the two halves of the psalm is also debated.

But, leaving technicalities aside, I wrote on this psalm because in 1983 Laura and I had two little girls at home and our third child was on the way and I had always been fascinated by the words of Psalm 127.3–5:

“Behold children are an inheritance from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who has filled his quiver with them! They shall not be put to shame when they speak with their enemies in the gate” (my translation).

The message of the psalm is that domestic endeavors are worthless apart from the LORD’s providence overruling and working through our efforts. This idea is epitomized in the children of believers who are a “reward” for covenant faithfulness and may grow up to impact society on behalf of the parents’ godly desires.

Despite a common understanding of this psalm, it does not say that every child born is a gift from God. Don’t misunderstand, I happen to believe that is basically true…but it’s not what this psalm is talking about. In Psalm 127 children are an “inheritance,” a “reward” for covenant faithfulness—the word “gift” in the NASB is simply defining the word “inheritance” as gift and ignores that the parallel word in the next line is “reward.” Though this is commonly found in commentaries as well (see notes to the ESV Study Bible), it is not the meaning of the word.

This psalm is classified as a Wisdom Psalm—that means it carries on the wisdom tradition in Israel by reflecting on the contrast between the righteous and the wicked or by underscoring the value and beauty of seeking to live a wise life. The children of godly men and women have the potential, in the goodness and providence of God, of being like arrows that we ‘shoot out’ into society to represent godly values. As a wisdom psalm, it is not promising that all children of godly parents will grow up to be such people, but indicating that such a potential rests on the parents relying on the sovereign providence of God.

Pretty much every time I come to this psalm in my Bible reading, I reflect on the question, ‘Now that my four children have grown, am I experiencing what this psalm speaks of? Are my children a means of extending God’s influence in society? Are they a reward for covenant faithfulness?’ I suppose that every time I reflect on this, both I and my children are at a different place and my very tentative conclusions are different. I think that, because of my history with this particular psalm, I feel a personal interest in determining if my understanding of it is correct by measuring my personal experience of it.

I have always encouraged Christian parents that their children’s teenage years are not the time to engage in a lot of measuring of their spiritual life—the bulk of your parenting responsibility isn’t over until your children are on their own, supporting themselves and making their own way through life without your guidance. (Of, course in one sense, our parenting task never ends as long as we and our children are alive; but when children are grown our work becomes indirect not direct.)

I also have come to believe that our evaluation of our ‘worth’ shouldn’t be based on our skills at parenting, though I suppose the way we parent shows to some degree the state of our heart. King David was about the world’s worst parent (read 2 Samuel 13–19) but he was the man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13.14; Acts 13.22)! A farmer’s worth is not measured by any one year’s crop, since much of the result is out of his hands. In the same way, while our faithfulness counts for much, we are sinners who must deal with sinful children and often liabilities are involved—personal, societal, and relational—that are out of our hands.

This is a good psalm to reflect on long and hard, over a period of years. It shows why the psalms are the materials for worship that God has provided for us to build our lives around.

Psalm 126

2010-03-09T02:06:00.000-05:00

This is often considered a Community Lament Psalm but it reads more like a Psalm of Trust—the ‘lament’ in the psalm is very minor and is swallowed up in the confidence that God will more than overcome the worshipers problems by his abundant grace.

Like many psalms, this psalm is tantalizingly obscure as to the precise event that occasioned it—this is often true because the psalms were written to be used by worshipers over many generations and in many settings so a precise event would limit its use. The psalm begins with a general reference to a deliverance of Israel by the LORD:

“When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad” (Psalm 126.1–3).

At first glance, the LORD’s restoring of Zion’s fortunes seems to refer to the end of the exile and the liberty to the captives to return to the land and re-establish the government and temple worship. But the reference is too vague to know if that is what is being referred to. It evidently must refer to a significant national deliverance and, it appears, the psalmist has experienced it personally (note “we,” “our,” “us”).

This is followed by the fact that the deliverance has not been complete—there are still “fortunes” to be restored. After the exile, the people returned to a destroyed temple, a leaderless community, a disheartened people of half-hearted obedience (Ezra, Nehemiah). But the psalm ends with a declaration of exuberant confidence:

“Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him” (Psalm 126.5–6).

I suppose this is a poetic way of saying “No pain, no gain!”

After his resurrection, the Lord Jesus told two of his followers on the road to Emmaus,

“Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” (Luke 24.26).

One of the lessons we learn from the life of Jesus that we are to pattern our lives after is that suffering must precede glory. That is our confidence on our earthly pilgrimage. As Paul told us, “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14.22).

In this life, we are taught that we should look for success and the opportunity to advance our own comfort. Yet the Lord calls us to live for the benefit of others and to look to heaven where we will experience the rest and comfort we long for. This psalm reminds us to pray that God will prosper our efforts on his behalf, making them fruitful for his purposes and to his honor.

Psalm 125

2010-03-06T22:03:00.001-05:00

Jerusalem is in a mountainous region and is, in fact, on a mountain—Mount Zion in the poetry of the psalms. I have driven through the Balkan Alps a few times, from Shkodër, Albania, to Gjilan, Kosova. In such a setting, one is overwhelmed by a sense of awe, majesty, and power, and a feeling that we are very tiny in the presence of things of such magnitude. It is understandable why fortresses and major cities were built on mountains—they are places of protection from which you can look down on your enemies with security. They represent, often in poetry, the rule of God. That’s why this psalm starts with these words:

“Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people, from this time forth and forevermore” (Psalm 125.1–2).

Note that it is not God who is said to be like Mount Zion, but the faithful believer. He or she is strong, immovable, surrounded by the LORD’s protection as the majestic mountains surround the slightly lower mountain on which Jerusalem is built.

Here, the psalmist assures the people that God will not allow “the scepter of wickedness” (that is, the rule of wicked, godless kings) to continue to reign over his people. Yet the Old Testament history shows that there were (increasingly!) wicked kings and, under their wicked guidance, the people of God did in fact “stretch out their hands to do wrong” (v 3b). Was the psalmist wrong? Was he too idealistic and not aware of the reality of evil in the government?

Perhaps the answer is in the word “rest” in v 3—“For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous.” From the beginning a gracious and all-powerful Ruler was designed for his people; David’s ‘greater Son,’ the Lord Jesus Christ. The rule of those who preceded him would never “rest” on the land. Only his rule will continue forever.

This is our security and our destiny toward which we look with rich expectation. We are cared for by God with the secure protection of the city of Jerusalem which is surrounded by mountains. We have the certainty of a righteous Ruler forever.

We can see why this psalm was chosen for this compilation of the psalms of ascent. As the pilgrim worshipers made their way to Jerusalem from almost anyplace within the land of Palestine, the journeyed up increasingly higher ground. They felt the same awe we feel in the presence of the majestic mountains. And they sang this song to remind themselves that what they saw around them pictures in graphic ways the security and significance that they have in the LORD.

Psalm 124

2010-03-05T02:04:00.000-05:00

The Psalms of Ascent were compiled for the pilgrim worshipers to sing as they traveled to the city of Jerusalem to worship at the temple for the three major feasts. Four of these psalms were written by David and later found to be appropriate for the pilgrim worshipers. This psalm is a Community Thanksgiving Hymn after some notable victory over an opposing nation or ethnic group. Many of these events occurred during David’s reign as he sought to consolidate the kingdom, establish the capital city, and expand the borders. As with most of the psalms in the Psalter, this one is written without specific references to the incident so that it may be more easily adapted by the worshipers of different generations to apply to their own situation. In this case, the appropriateness of the psalm is found in the fact that it is the LORD’s historic deliverances of his people from oppression that allow them to continue their yearly journeys to Jerusalem for the festivals the LORD has ordained for them.

The worshipers acknowledge in song that if the LORD had not been on their side they would have easily been defeated and subjugated by the Gentiles. Note the poetic language that all points to the idea of drowning in a flood:

“If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when people rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their anger was kindled against us; then the flood would have swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us; then over us would have gone the raging waters” (Psalm 124.2–5).

Then the image changes to that of a net set to catch birds. The LORD’s deliverance of his people is like that of birds when someone break a net and sets them free:

“Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth! We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped!” (Psalm 124.6–7).

In these brief words the worshipers acknowledge that God’s deliverance is the reason they can worship him.

This psalm ends with a summary statement:

“Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 124.8).

Interestingly, this verse was chosen by John Calvin to begin the worship of the church he pastored in Geneva, Switzerland in 1542 to begin the Sunday worship meetings of the church. The pastor would stand before the assembled congregation and say these words. Apparently he felt that calling believers to worship meant to call them to acknowledge the beneficial assistance of God in their lives.

While it is not necessary for us to begin worshiping together with this verse, it is this attitude that it the key to robust and heartfelt worship: “Our help is in the name of the LORD who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 124.8).

Psalm 123

2010-03-04T02:03:00.000-05:00

This is the fourth of the fifteen “Psalms of Ascent” which were used by the pilgrim worshipers as they traveled to the Jerusalem for the mandatory festivals of Passover (Unleavened Bread), Weeks, and Tabernacles (Deuteronomy 16.16). (See Blog Post for February 27, 2010, “Psalm 120”).

This is a Community Lament Psalm. Since it is anonymous and we don’t know when it was written it is impossible to know its original setting. The reason that it was included in this collection, however, is obvious. Consider again the situation of the pilgrim worshipers. As families left their homes and villages and began their journey to Jerusalem, many of them would have to travel long distances through various parts of the country. Even before the exile and restoration, they would travel through the villages and regions of their Gentile neighbors whom their ancestors had failed to dispossess from the land (Judges 1.27–36). In addition, not all Israelites were faithful worshipers—as the kingdom divided into the Northern and Southern Kingdoms (Judah and Israel), many Israelites attempted to fuse the worship of the LORD and of the Canaanite gods and no longer attended the sanctuary in Jerusalem. As a result, a journey to Jerusalem would have brought the pilgrim travelers into times of jeering, ridicule, and scorn, both from their fellow citizens and from the Gentile population.

After the restoration to the land, the situation would have been even more difficult. Judea became much smaller with Samaritans to the north—a mixed race of Israelites and Canaanites with a mixed religion as well and with their own temple on Mount Gerazim. Beyond that was Galilee with a mixed population of Jews and Gentiles. To travel to Jerusalem was an exaggerated situation of what it was like before the exile.

This song would be an encouragement to the pilgrims in a situation of ridicule:

“Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt. Our soul has had more than enough of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud” (Psalm 123.3–4).

This explains why the worshipers begin their song looking to with patient and submissive trust for God to protect them from ridicule.

As Christians our pilgrimage through this barren world is also filled with contempt. Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16.33). Paul said that it is, “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14.22). We are promised difficulty in this life as we faithfully follow Jesus Christ. Our troubles may be family ridicule, uneasy relationships on the job, loss of friendships, or hard feelings about our personal moral choices. In whatever way we experience these difficulties, reflection on Psalm 123 can give us the same comfort it gave to those who first sang it in Palestine.

Psalm 122

2010-03-03T02:02:00.000-05:00

This is the third of the fifteen “Psalms of Ascent,” a collection of psalms (120–134) designed for the pilgrims to sing as they traveled to Jerusalem for the religious festivals (See Blog post for February 27, 2010, “Psalm 120”). Four of these psalms are written by David; this indicates that this collection of psalms was compiled later, since some of the psalms clearly are after the time of David. Selected psalms were collected because their themes lent to the contemplation of the joy of going to Jerusalem to worship the LORD in the way he had commanded.

This psalm particularly allows us to see David’s intent to unify the nation under the monarchy and to make Jerusalem the central sanctuary of the people—both key themes of David’s reign as it is described in 1 Samuel 16—1 Kings 1. In the book of Deuteronomy, the LORD had revealed his intent to establish a central sanctuary in the land after the people had made it their home:

“But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock” (Deuteronomy 12.5–6).

David was the one who captured the ancient city of Jerusalem and made it his capital city; later in his life he established the tabernacle with the Ark of the Covenant as the place of central worship (2 Samuel 5–6).

Both of these events are referred to in Psalm 122: The city is the place “to which the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the LORD” and it is the location of the “thrones of the house of David” (the capital city) (vv 4–5). This psalm ties together the prediction of God in the Law that there would be a central sanctuary for the celebration of the three major feasts; this city would bind together (v 3) the nation into a political and religious unity.

The central sanctuary was called the “house of the LORD” (vv 1, 9) because it was, by God’s designation, the place where he would be present among his people when they came to worship and petition him. The Israelites knew that the LORD didn’t only dwell there since he was the LORD of heaven and earth (see Blog Post for October 10, 2009, “The Location of Worship in the Psalms”). But they knew that he himself promised to put his name (covenant presence) there in a unique way and he commanded them to center their spiritual life on that location.

Sometimes today we might hear a worship leader quote this psalm in a public worship meeting:
“I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the LORD!’” (Psalm 122.1)
Unfortunately, unless it is explained this becomes an illegitimate use of this psalm. When David wrote this, he was referring to a literal place of worship—the tabernacle and, later, the temple were often referred to as “the house” in the Old Testament—in a literal city, Jerusalem. People would make their way to that sanctuary to worship. In other words, in the Old Testament, the “house of the LORD” was a building.

When we move from the shadows of the old covenant to the substance of the new covenant, we find that the ‘location’ of worship has changed—Jesus is the true ‘temple,’ the dwelling place of God; he indwells his people by his Spirit and makes us corporately the temple of God (John 2.19–21; Ephesians 2.21). Worship takes place wherever God’s people lift up their voices in praise to the Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus, no building today is “the house of God.” I’m afraid the quoting of this psalm gives the impression that when we come to a church building, we are coming to the place where God dwells. The New Testament doesn’t give any importance to buildings—we are “the house of God” when we meet to give him praise (Hebrews 3.6).

With that translation from old covenant to new covenant terms, this psalm becomes a precious reminder that the Lord calls us to be his worshipers. When we “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” we are asking God to prosper his gospel among us so that we become shining representatives of his grace.

Psalm 121

2010-03-02T02:00:00.001-05:00

This is the second of the fifteen “Songs of Ascent” which were psalms compiled for the pilgrims to sing together as they journeyed to the three major feasts in Jerusalem. The festivals at which all males were obligated to appear were the Feast of Passover/Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), and the Feast of Tabernacles (Exodus 23.9–10; 34.18–24; Deuteronomy 16.16). The women were excused from mandatory attendance at the festivals because their regular cycle of fertility would render them ceremonially unclean and unable to attend the temple worship (Leviticus 15). By the time of Jesus, however, it was customary for women to travel to Jerusalem with their family and attend worship meetings if they were able. As they traveled, in families and clans, these songs were on their lips. (See Blog post “Psalm 120,” February 27, 2010).

Psalm 121 fits well into this scenario. As the pilgrims travel to Jerusalem—and remember that they were walking; some may have been on donkeys but there were no means of mass travel at that time and neither horses nor camels were common in Ancient Israel—they walked through mountainous country. In their history, invaders and marauders lived in the mountains and swooped down from there on the unwary. So they sing,

“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121.1–2).

This psalm is both a reminder and a celebration of the fact that the LORD is the true protector of Israel. A well-ordered military was a good thing as was a benign ruler. But without God’s protection all human efforts at protection would be worthless.

This psalm is about the fact that the LORD is the true source of protection in life. Note that the word “keep” (keep, keeps, keeper) is used seven times in these short eight verses. The LORD keeps his own, meaning he guards or carefully watches over them. This is just as true for us on our earthly pilgrimage as it was for the people of God under the old covenant.

What is left out of this psalm, through evidently assumed, is that these ideas are only true for those who faithfully seek to follow and obey him. The exile proved that the LORD would not “keep” his people when they flagrantly disobey him. But as we walk with him in faithful obedience, he watches over us and guides us to our destination in his presence for eternity.

Psalm 120

2010-02-27T02:00:00.000-05:00

We come now to a set of psalms that at some point apparently functioned as its own collection and was later incorporated into the Psalter. Each of the next fifteen psalms has in the heading the words “A Song of Ascents” which has long been understood to mean they were songs written for the pilgrims to sing together as they journeyed to Jerusalem for the three major festivals. (There are other suggestions of the meaning of this phrase but most interpreters regard this as the most likely.) To travel to Jerusalem from any point in Israel required that one slowly ‘ascend’ since Jerusalem is on a mountain at a higher elevation than most of the country. It doesn’t appear that they were all originally written for that purpose since many different psalm types are represented but that they were later chosen for this collection because their content seemed appropriate to that use in worship.

If you read Luke 2.41–51 when Jesus’ family traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover festival when Jesus was twelve years old you can picture the scene—a family left their home and began to walk to Jerusalem (a journey by foot of from one to seven days depending on their location); as they journeyed, other families from their village or city joined them. The men and women separated during the day catching up on the family news; at night they regrouped as families and stayed in the homes of relatives or camped under the stars. As they journeyed, they sang these songs as individuals, families, groups of families, or even villages and clans. The songs carried them through the various stages of the spiritual life—lament, praise, rejoicing in their anointed king, petition, thanksgiving, celebration of Zion (Jerusalem), and expressions of trust in God. In this way (a delight to children, I would think), they allowed God’s word to shape their corporate life and develop their culture as the people of God. I can’t think of any experience in the typical spiritual life today that has the same kind of impact except (for some) going to a Christian Family Camp for a week of summer.

Psalm 120 begins this collection. It is a Psalm of Individual Lament, in which the psalmist expresses sorrow that he lives among a warlike people while he himself desires peace. While it is far from certain, the psalm may indicate that it was written during or after the exile when many of the Jewish people were dwelling outside of the land of Palestine and only returned if possible for the celebration of one of the three major yearly festivals:

“Woe to me, that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar! Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace” (Psalm 120.5–6).

Meshech is in far Northern (modern) Turkey near the Black See while Kedar is in the Arabian desert west of Israel. These place names may be used representatively for Gentile populations among whom the Israelites would have been dispersed by the Babylonians and with whom the Israelites would have shared an uncomfortable living relationship rather than being absorbed into them.

If this is the case, the pilgrim in this psalm, leaves the place where he is living and makes his way to Jerusalem to celebrate the festival, lamenting that his present condition as an alien in a foreign land makes him vulnerable to the hatred of the majority population. If we ask, “Why didn’t he just move back to Judea?” the answer I suppose is the same as, “After the Holocaust of the 1940’s, why did some of the Jews stay in Poland, Hungary, or Germany? Why didn’t they all emigrate to the newly-formed nation of Israel after 1948?” The reason is that where they lived had been their home for generations; they had property, family, business, and social relationships. Today there are Jewish families in Europe who at Passover say to one another “Next year, in Jerusalem!” (a common saying), while in reality, they have no intention of moving to Israel. I’m sure that was true after the exile was over—many returned to Judea; many others settled down where they had been displaced.

By singing this psalm, the pilgrim worshiper acknowledges that worship in Jerusalem at the temple is the solution to his struggle to live peacefully in a hostile world. There, in the presence of the LORD, with the people of God, they are reminded of life as it was meant to be and they carry with them the longing for God’s presence into all of their relationships.

Remember: We are called in Christ to live in a hostile world and to lament the struggles this brings while longing in our corporate worship to taste the goodness and grace of God that will someday become the universal experience:

“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation” (1 Peter 2.11–12).

This psalm still speaks to us and for us.

Psalm 119

2010-02-26T01:59:00.000-05:00

This is the longest psalm in the Psalter and the longest chapter in the Bible. It is also a very carefully constructed acrostic poem in which each stanza begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

In most English Bibles the stanzas are presented with the Hebrew letter above each stanza (Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Daleth, etc.). Each stanza is eight verses long which makes the psalm 176 verses—22 letters times eight verses per letter. What is remarkable is that within the stanzas each individual verse starts with the same letter; so, verses one through eight each begin with aleph, nine through 16 with beth, etc. You can imagine what a limitation this places on the writer!

The psalm is often called a ‘Torah Psalm,’ that is, one that celebrates the beauty, wisdom and goodness of God’s law (torah, in Hebrew), a word that basically means ‘instruction.’ It is very important to think carefully about the law, and to use the whole of God’s revelation in his word to construct an understanding of its place in God’s purposes.

In its narrow meaning in the Old Testament, the law refers to the commandments that are contained in the first five books of the Bible, the five books of Moses which are often called the ‘Pentateuch’ (meaning ‘five books’). In a broader sense the law refers to the five books themselves which the Jews call the Torah. According to Judaism there are 613 commandments in the Torah; these laws are God’s instruction for his people under the Mosaic covenant as to how to live in every area of life.

Now (and this is very important), the law was not given as way to reach God. In other words, the law never defined a ‘way of salvation.’ The law was given to guide the lives of a people who already belonged to the LORD—it was given at Mount Sinai to a people who had been redeemed from slavery in Egypt and saved from destruction at the Red Sea. It is because of this that the apostle Paul, himself a devout Jewish man, concludes, “So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good” (Romans 7.12).

The law was the guiding force of discipleship under the old (Mosaic) covenant. In this psalm, the worshipers celebrate God’s goodness in providing his word to shape our character and conduct in every way. Almost every one of the 176 verses of this psalm refers to God’s law in some way. God’s law contains his testimonies, precepts, statutes, rules, word, commandments…and those are just from the first two stanzas of the psalm!

In fact, Israel loved the law so much that they began to add to it in order to show its value. Some of this was natural. For example, the law prescribed that one was not to ‘work’ on the Sabbath and it went on to define work by giving some general directions, including “kindling a fire” (Exodus 35.3) and “gathering sticks” (Numbers 15.32). Naturally, the people had questions about what constituted ‘work’ and so they combed the law for every bit of information and then set rules that covered the feeding of animals, dealing with emergencies, and so forth. But as the generations passed, the Hebrew people began to ‘build a hedge around the law.’ The idea was that the law was so holy and so important that they added rules in order to keep people from getting close to breaking the law—the laws of hand washing fell into this category. If you think that was only a problem within Judaism, consider this: When I became a Christian in 1973, many churches had a rule against ‘mixed bathing’ (that is, men and women swimming at a pool or lake together). The reason was that, because the Bible forbids immorality, we should have rules that would keep people from even getting close to it by helping them avoid temptation. While there may be some validity to this rule at times, we all have to admit that it was something ‘added’ to the scriptural standard that goes beyond what the Bible itself commands. And many people don’t distinguish the prohibition against immorality from the application that some people make from it.

Two things happened between the history recorded in the Old Testament and the life of Jesus. (Jesus was born about four hundred years after the last book of the Bible was written.) First, many of the added rules came to have as much force as the laws themselves and, second, the idea took root that keeping the law was a way of gaining merit with God and assuring one’s salvation. The Lord Jesus rejected both of these concepts. When the Pharisees accused his disciples of eating “with hands that were defiled” (Mark 7.1)—meaning, they hadn’t engaged in a ritual hand washing—he seems to have ignored it because it was a requirement added to the Old Testament law. The New Testament doesn’t indicate that Jesus always ignored the added rituals rules but only that he didn’t regard them as being on the same level as the commands of God. And, obviously, he rejected the idea that the law was ever meant to have any saving purpose and offered himself as the alternative to salvation by law.

Under the new covenant, we are commanded to keep the commandments of Christ (Matthew 28.19) which are also called “the royal law” (James 2.8) and “the law of Christ” (1 Corinthians 9.21). The life of discipleship is now comprised of learning to obey and imitate the person of Christ, not keeping the law of Moses.

Therefore, when we reflect on Psalm 119 we have to ‘translate’ it into new covenant terms—we still honor the Old Testament law but mainly because it pointed so dramatically to Christ, because it was perfectly fulfilled by him in his life, and because it was our “tutor to lead us to Christ” (Galatians 3.24, NASB) by showing us our sin and need for a Savior. With that in mind, we, too give honor to God’s word to us in Christ, singing all the praises that are written in Psalm 119.

Psalm 118

2010-02-25T01:58:00.001-05:00

This psalm is the best example from the Psalter of the ‘liturgical’ use of a psalm. This means that the structure of the psalm indicates that different voices are heard in the psalm engaging in worship—the assembled congregation, the Aaronic priests, the King (or a congregational leader) who speaks to the congregation or speaks as a representative of God’s people, and possibly a choir. This psalm is evidently not the story of an individual who muses on his personal experience of God and then writes a psalm for the assembled congregation to use in worship; this is a highly organized and directed form of worship in which various parts are played.

This psalm, however, is not only ‘liturgical;’ it also was used extensively by the Lord Jesus particularly during the last week of his life. The reason is that it is the last of the Great Hallel (‘praise’) psalms that are sung at the Passover celebration (Psalms 113–118). Though we don’t know the order in which the psalms were sung in the time of Jesus, it is the most likely candidate to be the hymn that Jesus led the apostles in singing at the conclusion of their Passover meal (Matthew 26.30) before they made their way to the Mount of Olives on the last night of our Lord’s life. At the Triumphal Entry, the crowds shouted Psalm 118.26 as Jesus rode in on a donkey (Matthew 21.9). The next day, Jesus said explicitly that he was about to fulfill Psalm 118.22, 23 (Matthew 21.42). Other verses are quoted elsewhere in the New Testament (Acts 4.11; 1 Peter 2.7; Hebrews 13.6). It is hard to think of a more influential psalm.

The psalm divides into four parts. While it is impossible to completely interpret the original liturgical use of the psalm in temple worship, the following scenario seems very plausible:

Verses 1–4: The leader calls and three different groups of worshipers respond verbally—v 2, the assembled worshipers (‘Israel’); v 3, the Aaronic priests (‘the house of Aaron’); and v 4, the (Levitical?) choir (‘those who fear the LORD’).
Verses 5–18: The king (or leader) speaks on behalf of the nation. He gives a testimony to what he has experienced as the leader and representative of the nation—the entire section is in first person singular (‘I, me, my’) and is about distress and deliverance resulting in praise to the LORD and confidence in his saving power.
Verses 19–25: A verbal exchange between the King and the people. Note the interchange between first person singular (‘I, me, my’) and first person plural (‘we, us ours’) that seems to go almost sentence by sentence, as though the king speaks and the worshipers respond. Some interpreters see the king entering the temple gates in verse 19 saying “Open to me the gates of righteousness,” and the people responding in verse 20 but this may be reading too much into it.
Verses 26–29: A closing note of praise by the people. There is a sudden change to first person singular in verse 28 which may be the King/leader speaking.

Again, while it is impossible to ferret out the exact use of the psalm, it is evident as we reflect on it that it pictures a highly celebrative and organized use in temple worship.

If you have ever attended a highly liturgical church, like a Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or Anglican Church, you have experienced ‘liturgy’ in its strictest sense. The liturgy lays out the words spoken by the officiating leader, the responses of the people, and, in some cases, the additional words of a choir. I suppose the two liturgical forms most widely used across all traditions are the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostle’s Creed.

I have found that many serious Christians are very uncomfortable with any liturgy, particularly if they grew up in a liturgical church in which they felt that people were just going through the motions, mindlessly reciting things without any sense of conviction or meaning. Some Christians seem almost allergic to anything that is ‘recited,’ including the Lord’s Prayer. I’m afraid they’ve ‘thrown out the baby with the bathwater’ so to speak. The more I have read and reflected on the New Testament, the more it seems to me that New Testament church worship was a mixture of form and freedom. There are enough snatches of liturgical elements in the writings of the apostles to indicate that there were some standard ‘forms’ of worship that were used in the early churches. I would count among these the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6.9–13, Luke 11.2–4); the ‘Christ Hymn’ (Philippians 2.5–11); and the confession of faith recorded in 1 Timothy 3.16 (note that the words that introduce this verse are, “By common confession great is the mystery of godliness” [NASB, emphasis added]). I think we should expect this to be the case since both Jesus and the apostles were shaped by weekly synagogue worship and the New Testament churches started as a movement within the synagogues. Synagogue worship was ‘semi-liturgical’ with a mixture of form and freedom (read Acts 13.14–16 for an example).

It seems apparent that the New Testament churches also involved elements of worship that were ‘free,’ ‘Spirit-led,’ and spontaneous, though controlled by the command that all things be done for the edification of other believers (1 Corinthians 14, especially verse 26). In other words, worship was not completely ‘liturgical’ or completely ‘free’ (to use the descriptive words of the two worship traditions in existence today).

I personally am from the ‘Free Church’ worship tradition—both by training and by choice. I have no desire to engage in public worship of God (at least on a regular basis) in a highly formalized and structured way in which the entire service is written out beforehand. But I do feel that if we don’t ever allow for more structured elements in our worship meetings, or allow ‘forms’ like the Lord’s Prayer to be used as parts of our worship at times, we will be the losers. One of the reasons I have come to that conclusion is because of psalms like Psalm 118.

Psalm 117

2010-02-24T01:57:00.000-05:00

This is the shortest psalm and the shortest chapter in the Bible, having only sixteen words in the Hebrew Bible and twenty-eight words in the English Standard Version.

Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples!
For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
Praise the Lord!
(Psalm 117)

As noted before, the words “Praise the LORD” are a command (see Blog post “Psalm 113” on February 18, 2010). In this case the worshipers call the Gentiles to join in worship of the LORD for his steadfast love and faithfulness.

The Old Testament constantly holds out the expectation that the Gentiles will join with Israel in praising the LORD, the true God of all the earth. God had promised Abraham that “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12.3). Without the psalms, we might wonder if Israel understood the significance of this promise. The psalms, however, contain so many references to the nations coming to worship the LORD that it becomes evident they took the promise seriously. Believers under the old covenant anticipated that it was through them, as the seed of Abraham, that the Gentiles would come to God (Genesis 28.14). They were called to live as shining examples of what it looks like to live under the rule of the LORD. In their lifestyle and worship, they were to seek to be “righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord” (Luke 1.6). The result would be that the Gentiles would be attracted to the God they worshiped.

We know that in the Old Testament there were those who responded to this. Ruth, for example, is one who adhered to Israel’s faith as a result of her time with her mother-in-law, Naomi (Ruth 1.14–18). By New Testament times, there was a Greek term meaning “one who fears God” that the Jewish people used to refer to those Gentiles who were attracted to Judaism but hadn’t yet converted. Obviously, to convert required circumcision for a male which explains why there were many more female converts, while males tended to remain as ‘God-fearers.’

Under the new covenant, it has become clear that it is indeed through the “Seed of Abraham,” the Lord Jesus Christ, that the nations will be brought to glorify God. In the Great Commission, Jesus gave a clear mandate to spread his message to all the nations, making disciples who will live as his worshipers. This song reminds us of our clear directive to live missional lives.

Psalm 116

2010-02-23T01:56:00.001-05:00

This psalm is evidently a song of thanksgiving after a deliverance from trouble. It is clearly the fulfillment of a vow of praise or thanksgiving that the anonymous psalmist made to God in the midst of his difficulty. It seems that in experiences of danger or difficulty, a person would make a promise to God that he would praise him in public worship, usually with a thanksgiving sacrifice (a form of the ‘peace offering’ described in Leviticus 7.12–15). This was a voluntary offering, in which the worshiper brought an animal and had a priest offer it in sacrifice, then ate it with the friends and relatives he had invited to the offering. Since this was an act of worship, it became customary for psalms and prayers to be offered in which the worshiper told his story of how the LORD had delivered him from trouble. Note the ‘vow of thanksgiving’ to which the psalmist refers twice in the psalm:

“What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD, I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people” (Psalm 116.12–14).

“I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people” (Psalm 116.17–18).

The concept of ‘vows’ seems foreign to us today but there are many laws in the Pentateuch (the five books of Moses) that regulate the proper use of vows to God. We should be aware that we still take vows—the ‘marriage vow’ being the chief ‘religious’ vow that people take in life—so it is not a completely foreign concept. Some of you may remember that Jesus said something about ‘oaths’ that many people believe forbids Christians from taking oaths:

“Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all…” (Matthew 5.33–34).

There is debate about the meaning and application of these verses, but it seems to forbid the careless swearing of oaths in common life; Jesus said it is better to be an honest person in all parts of life and not have to swear by anything. In the early centuries of the Christian movement, the church took these verses to forbid the swearing of the ‘Sacramentum’ which was the oath of allegiance to the Roman Government. This involved offering a sacrifice to the Emperor and declaring that ‘Caesar is Lord.’ It doesn’t seem that Jesus forbid making a vow to God as Old Testament believers did; the New Testament says nothing about it.

It is certainly not required, and I am not recommending, that Christian believers make vows of praise or thanksgiving to God but it seems that the principle still holds true. We face many difficulties in our life—they may be physical (sickness, warfare, danger), or financial (loss of job or resources), or spiritual (cut off from fellowship with God’s people by circumstances beyond our control) or emotional (struggles with our emotional state). When we face these ‘dangers’ we are to pray to God for deliverance. It isn’t inappropriate to determine within ourselves that if and when the Lord delivers us from our trouble, we will praise him openly in front of other believers. This doesn’t necessarily mean in a Sunday morning worship meeting—it may be within our small group or with our family or while enjoying the company of other Christians. It seems to me that there is too little of open praise and thanksgiving among God’s people today; I think that is because we Americans lack the ‘community’ orientation of the Bible (and of many other cultures).

God desires that we take discipleship seriously. In part that means seeking to see every aspect of our life as ‘worship.’ We are to bring to him everything, including our most serious struggles. When he gives significant answers, we should acknowledge what he has done for us in the presence of others. This benefits us and it benefits other believers who are emboldened to see their lives in light of God’s providential care. Again, the psalms show us people who are doing just that.

Psalm 115

2010-02-20T01:55:00.000-05:00

In the 1800’s, Charles Darwin published ‘The Origin of Species’ which hit the academic community like a blockbuster. Not only was the theory widely debated but over the next century there were scholarly attempts to apply the theory of evolution to all areas of study. For example, both Communists and anti-communists used the evolutionary idea of ‘survival of the fittest’ to explain the rise and competition of various economic theories in the world. One area that was considered ‘fruitful’ for the idea of progressive development from a ‘lower’ form to a ‘higher’ form was religion. The theory was advanced, and is still very widely held, that as the human race progressed from primitive communities to advanced civilizations, religion also advanced from crude polytheism to pure monotheism—in this progression, many people regarded monotheism as springing from the genius of Judaism and considered Christianity to be the highest ethical form of monotheism and thus the greatest religion on earth. Those who believed the last sentence were usually Christians who were trying to make the theory of evolution fit into their conception of Christianity as a pure ethical religion. Those who didn’t were usually lapsed Christians or nonbelievers who simply wanted to show that Christianity was one of many religions that came about by natural development.

The Bible asserts that, according to its clear teaching, the religion of the human race from the beginning was pure monotheism. It is only later that the race degenerated into polytheism, animism, and spiritism; these are all merely degraded and unnatural offspring of the belief in one, true and living God. Not only does a plain reading of the early chapters of Genesis demonstrate this but the later explanation of the religious history of the world is stated by the apostle Paul in the New Testament in these terms:

“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (Romans 1.21–23).

The Bible represents history as a ‘devolution’ of belief in one God into polytheism and idolatry. The existence of people outside of Israel, like Job (the Book of Job), Melchizedek (Genesis 14), Jethro (Exodus 18) demonstrate that there were always monotheists who worshiped ‘the Most High God’ even before the LORD called Israel to be his people. They were not always clear on the nature of this one God, and it is implied that Jethro (Moses’ father-in-law) was converted to YHWH worship after seeing the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt.

However, when Israel conquered the Promised Land they failed to dispossess all of the previous inhabitants (Judges 1.27–36). As God had predicted these became a snare to them because they continued the worship of their many gods with the idols and rituals they had always used. It was difficult for many of the Israelites to maintain the worship of the one, true God without any external aids (idols) in the face of constant idolatry going on around them. The downfall of Israel, in fact, and the reason they were sent into exile, was simply because they refused to worship God purely as he had commanded. In the northern kingdom there was a wholesale attempt from the top of the government (king Jeroboam, 1 Kings 13 and 14) to turn the worship of the LORD into another Canaanite fertility religion. And it worked to a large degree so that whole generations of Israelites were very confused about who the LORD was and how he was to be worshiped. This was a constant temptation and threat to the biblical practices that were commanded by the LORD in the Law.

All of this lies behind Psalm 115. The song calls the worshipers to acknowledge the supreme honor of the LORD and to mock the idols who have no objective reality. First, the LORD is presented as unseen but supremely powerful and active:

“Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115.2–3).

Then the utter foolishness of idolatry is asserted in graphic terms:

“Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them” (Psalm 115.4–8).

Notice the irony of the last sentence—People become like the gods they make! Lifeless.

The rest of the psalm is an expansion on how we should respond to the basic fact of the existence of one, true, living God who is actively involved in the world for the benefit of his people.

All generations of the people of God face the same struggle as we seek to maintain the faithful worship of the true God in the face of the world’s constant attempt to make god in its own image. We feel the pressure to accept that all religions are merely different attempts to reach the same God, to be tolerant and accepting of all the different forms of worship and of thinking about God, to conform contemporary values (like, for example, homosexuality as an acceptable, alternative lifestyle, or marriage and family as any group of people living together with ‘commitment’) to Christian worship and life. But all these attempts fall short because they conflict with the revelation God has given in his word.

How will you seek to be faithful to God—as he has revealed himself in his word—on your earthly pilgrimage? Many churches and people before us have compromised with unbiblical notions and tried to make our faith just another ‘fertility religion’ of one sort or another. One thing we must do is use the psalms—like Psalm 115—in the way they were meant, as divinely-inspired reflections on our pilgrimage through a fallen world as the people of God.

Psalm 114

2010-02-19T01:54:00.002-05:00

This beautiful psalm uses graphic imagery to show the LORD’s power over creation in the forming of his people. It is, however, a song that is so removed from our way of thinking about songs that it requires some consideration to understand what it means. In our worship songs we expect to experience movement toward a unified point. When we read this psalm, we don’t sense that the elements of the song are unified.

Our problem in reading Hebrew poetry is that it demands a knowledge of the Old Testament story of God’s people. Under the old covenant, God’s people were a distinct ethnic group with a common descent from Abraham and a common history. Much of their poetry was both based on this history and was designed to help the worshipers see themselves as participants in it. By remembering the saving acts of God—bondage in Egypt, Passover, deliverance, crossing the Red Sea, and so forth—succeeding generations were to see themselves as participants. The idea of racial solidarity was very strong; they were ‘in the loins’ of their ancestors (see Hebrews 7.10) when these events occurred and so they were ‘there’ in an ‘embryonic’ form—actually, physically present as unconscious participants in the works of God. The same is meant to be true of us when we gather at the Lord’s Table: since we share the same faith as the apostles, our spiritual ancestors, the words Jesus spoke on that night belong to us as well (1 Corinthians 11.23–26). That’s why they were repeated verbatim by the apostle Paul twenty years later to the Corinthians; it’s also why we repeat them today.

Psalm 114 uses a series of images to draw to remembrance specific saving acts of God in forming his Old Testament people:

Verses 1 and 2 are a preview (or overview)—when God brought Israel out of bondage in Egypt (Exodus 1–12), he made Judah (the tribe that became the Southern kingdom after the division) his sanctuary—because there he appointed Jerusalem to be the capital city where he put his temple. Israel (the northern kingdom) became his dominion, or territory.

Verse 3 says that when Israel left Egypt, God parted the Red Sea (Exodus 14) and when they entered the Promised Land (Joshua 3), God parted the Jordan.

Verse 4 describes a time when the mountains “skipped like rams,” an apparent reference to Israel at Mount Sinai when the mountain “trembled greatly” (Exodus 19.18) and quaked (Judges 5.5). It is at Sinai that God made Israel his people and gave them the law as a constitution for the nation.

Verse 8 reminds the worshipers that in the wilderness, on the journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, God provided water for the thirsty people from the “flinty rock” (Numbers 20.11; Deuteronomy 8.15).

While these references don’t readily come to our minds, they did to the Israelites. And while these seem thrown out in no particular order and cover a long period of history, they are all key events in the forming of Israel to be God’s “treasured possession among all peoples… a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19.5-6).

When Israel sang this song, they were reminded that they were the people of God, formed by his mighty acts of salvation and provision, and called to live as an evident witness to his saving power.

The psalms show that in order for us to live as God’s people in the world, we must be confident that our history gives us a unique place and a distinct call to be witnesses to his saving power.

Psalm 113

2010-02-18T01:53:00.001-05:00

Psalm 113 occupies an important place in the history of Judaism because it is the first of the great ‘Hallel’ (meaning ‘Praise’) psalms (Psalms 113–118) that form a significant part of the Passover celebration from early times. These six psalms are sung as part of the Passover liturgy when the family eats the Passover meal and recites the sayings that remind them of their heritage as those who were saved from bondage. One of these psalms would have been the ‘hymn’ that Jesus and the apostles sang at the conclusion of the Last Supper:

“And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives” (Matthew 26.30).

This psalm begins and ends with the words “Praise the LORD.” This translates a single Hebrew word, Hallelu-Yah, in which Yah is a shortened form of the name of God. A little information on this might be helpful.

This word is an imperative form of the verb ‘to praise,’ which simply means it is a command, “Praise the LORD,” not a statement or an exclamation. In the psalms, where it occurs twenty-eight times, it is generally followed by the reasons why we should praise the LORD. It is never used simply as an exclamation as it is sometimes used today. In the New Testament, the word Hallelujah occurs four times in Revelation 19, but there it is simply the untranslated Hebrew word that is found in the Old Testament but is translated as “Praise the LORD.”

The words “Praise the LORD” are different from the words “Bless the LORD.” Though they are close in meaning, they technically involve two different verbs. Thus, “Bless the LORD, O my soul” (in Psalm 103.1) involves different a word than “Praise the LORD” in this psalm—unfortunately, the NIV obscures this by only translating these words as “Praise the LORD.”

The thing I find interesting in this psalm is that the reason the LORD is to be praised is because of his care for the lowly. Though “the LORD is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens” (v 4), he stoops down and “raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap” (v 7), and “he gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children” (v 9). In other words, those who are socially and economically marginalized find in the exalted King of heaven and earth, a helper and protector.

Psalm 112

2010-02-17T01:52:00.000-05:00

Like the previous psalm, Psalm 112 is an acrostic poem in which each line begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew Alphabet. The tone and topic of this psalm, however, is completely different. Perhaps indicated by the last verse of Psalm 111 which begins, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,” Psalm 112 is a Wisdom Psalm (along with Psalms 1, 37, 49, 73, and 127). A wisdom psalm focuses on the contrast of the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked, demonstrating that their way of life moves them towards godliness or ungodliness.

In Psalm 112, the emphasis is on the righteous, with the wicked only receiving the notice of the last verse. The righteous person (“man” in verse one is used in a generic sense as in Psalm 1 and means “person”) shows his covenant faithfulness in his commitment to the community of God’s people. He is “gracious, merciful, and righteous” (v 4), he “deals generously and lends” (v 5), “he will be remembered forever” (v 6), “He has distributed freely; he has given to the poor” (v 9). All of these evidences of his righteous character have a horizontal emphasis—this is how those in the community of faith experience “the man who fears the LORD” (v 1).

Verse 7 stands out as describing something about the experience of the man himself, rather than how others experience him:

“He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD” (Psalm 112.7).

The older I get and the more responsibilities I face—for wife, children, parents, and friends—the more I find it difficult to not “be afraid of bad news.” Especially in good times, we humans have a tendency to wonder when the ‘other shoe is going to drop.’ We figure that things can’t go well forever. And life provides many opportunities to experience ‘bad’ things happening, at least in the lives of others, so we wonder when it will come our way.

Psalm 112.7 says that the man who fears the LORD doesn’t live in fear of bad news because he trusts in the LORD. As Kidner notes, “What is promised is not better news (not, at least for the time being, though it will come: 8b, 10) but a steady heart” (Kidner, 2: p 400). Apparently trust in the LORD includes confidence in his sovereign will and essential goodness. If we know that God is sovereign then we believe he rules over all things and ultimately all things happen by his will—either by his direct choice (his ‘decretive will’) or by his permission (his ‘permissive will’). Nothing escapes his notice or happens ‘by chance.’ Rather, all things happen “according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1.11). That would be frightening if we were not also convinced that our God is essentially good—that is, there is no mixture of evil in his motives or purposes (Habakkuk 1.13). So whatever comes into our lives comes by his permission for purposes we may not fathom but we can trust are for his glory and for our ‘benefit’ (eternally, though possibly not temporally).

What do you fear today? Give it to God. Let your heart trust in him. He has your best interests in mind.

Psalm 111

2010-02-16T01:51:00.002-05:00

Psalm 111 along with Psalm 112 is an ‘acrostic’ poem, that is, each line of the psalm starts with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. After the initial “Praise the LORD” (Hallelujah!), there are twenty-two lines following the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This stylistic device is somewhat limiting to the author (after all, only so many words begin with the letter ‘Q’), but tends to aid the memorization of the psalm. Other acrostic psalms are 9, 10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 119, and 145. Not all of them are ‘perfect’—some of them skip or transpose the order of letters. Psalms 111 and 112, however, are ‘perfect’ in sequence.

The psalm stresses the works of the LORD, using words that mean ‘work’ or ‘works’ five times in the ten verses of the psalm. The word can carry different meanings as it does in this psalm:

Verse 2: “Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them.” Here the LORD’s works are the things he has made that we find in the heavens and the earth.
Verse 3: “Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever.” These works are his righteous acts or providential works by which he maintains his creation with justice.

Verses 4 and 6: “He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and merciful.” “He has shown his people the power of his works, in giving them the inheritance of the nations.” These ‘works’ are the great saving acts of God, as in the Passover and the Cross.

Verse 7: “The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy.” These ‘works’ are his word, or precepts in the parallelism of the verse, by which he guides his people.

The psalm closes with this adage from the wisdom writings of the Bible:

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding” (Psalm 111.10).

This saying is found in various forms in Job 28.28; Proverbs 1.7; 9.10; Ecclesiastes 12.13 and indicates that those who pay attention to God’s various works, finds God’s moral character reflected in his life.

God performs his ‘works’ on behalf of his people—by providing a place for us in his creation, by sustaining the creation by his providence, by making us his people through the work of redemption, and by giving us his word to guide us and sustain our lives. As we pray this psalm, we are asking God to make us the people who fear him and experience his wisdom to guide us in life in his world.

Psalm 110

2010-02-13T01:50:00.001-05:00

Many scholars regard this as the only purely messianic psalm in the Bible, and I would agree with them. Other psalms that speak of the Messiah (Psalm 2, 22, 46, etc.) are written concerning one of the Davidic Kings and have a double- or higher-reference to the final King in the line of David—Jesus the Messiah. This psalm, however, written by David, is clearly about someone other than himself:

“The LORD (YHWH) says to my Lord (Adonai): ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool’” (Psalm 110.1).

YHWH is the personal name of the covenant God of Israel (see ‘The Name of God in the Psalms,’ Blog post of January 10, 2010). The word LORD (in all- or small-capitals) is used in our English Old Testaments to represent the Name. The usual word for Lord (meaning, sovereign or master) in Hebrew is Adonai. Thus in Psalm 110 David is saying,

“The one true and living God, the covenant God of Israel, the Creator of the heavens and earth says to my Master and Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” (Psalm 110.1, paraphrased)

At the end of his ministry, when the Pharisees were trying to trip Jesus up with difficult questions from the Old Testament, Jesus asked them a question from this verse:

“’What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?’ They said to him, ‘The son of David.’ He said to them, ‘How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet?” If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?’ And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions” (Matthew 22.42–46).

All agreed that the Messiah was to be a descendent of David (2 Samuel 7.12–14; Psalm 89.4; Isaiah 11.1, 10; Jeremiah 23.5) but Psalm 110 implies that he will not be merely a human descendant of David but will be David’s Lord. Later, in Psalm 110, David wrote:

“The Lord (Adonai) is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations” (Psalm 110.5).

The word Lord (Adonai) is reserved for God in the Old Testament; thus, the use of the word in verse one to refer to David’s ‘Lord’ and its use in verse five to refer to the Messiah implies the deity of the Messiah who is at the Lord’s right hand. No wonder the Pharisees decided to ask him no more questions!

The significance of this Messianic prediction was not lost on the New Testament writers—this is the single most quoted verse from the Old Testament in the New Testament. On the basis of this text, Christians have often referred to Jesus the Messiah as “David’s greater Son.”

Indeed, he is! That is why we worship him—only a divine Messiah could provide an eternal salvation (Hebrews 9.12).

Psalm 109

2010-02-12T01:49:00.000-05:00

This Individual Lament Psalm by David is about a faithful believer who is suffering the attacks of wicked people against him despite his innocence and the fact that he has only done good to them in the past. It is also considered one of the imprecatory psalms (see Psalm 35, 69, and 137). An imprecation is when a writer calls down curses on his enemies, praying that God would bring judgment, harm, even death to them.

We have noted some of the reasons why God put these psalms in the Bible despite their dire prayers (see Psalm 109.6–20). Four reasons were outlined in Psalm 35 (see Blog Post for October 13, 2009 for an expansion of these points):

The psalmist prays down curses on his enemies because he recognizes the reality of human sin and divine judgment.
These prayers are not expressions of personal revenge but expressions of zeal for the glory and kingdom of God against whom the psalmist’s enemies ultimately have sinned.
We should always pray for the repentance of evildoers but, if that does not happen, however, any prayer for God's justice and for Christ's return will ultimately involve the punishment of those who have oppressed God’s people.
Under the new covenant, we are aware of the spiritual and cosmic nature of our struggle in living for God (Ephesians 6.12). This heightens the meaning of these psalms for us today.

Psalm 109 contains a prayer that moves in two directions: A prayer against the persecutors (vv 6–20) and a prayer for deliverance from their accusations (vv 21–29).

Remember that the Psalter was the hymnbook of Israel. In the times of Jesus, they knew no other songs that were sung in the community of God’s faithful people—these songs were constantly on their lips and in their hearts. This is why, soon after the death and resurrection of Christ, early Christians used this psalm to demonstrate why Judas needed to be replaced as one of the twelve witnesses to the ministry, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Who could have been more innocent than the spotless Lamb of God? Who could have been more guilty than the traitor who betrayed him? This song which contrasts the innocent accused with the treacherous accuser would have come to mind as a clear example of God’s prior prediction of this reality in the life of his Son.

So in the upper room, as the early believers prayed before the day of Pentecost, Peter told the assembled worshipers, “Let another take his office” (Acts 1.20; quoting Psalm 109.8).

The whole Bible concerns Christ. This doesn’t mean that Christ is mentioned in every verse; it means that we need to uncover where each verse stands in relation to Christ who is the subject of the Bible’s unfolding story. This is what Jesus meant when he said to the Pharisees:

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me…. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me” (John 5.39, 46, emphasis added).

Look for Christ in the Psalms in the ways he reveals himself—his nature and necessity—and you will find him every time.

Psalm 108

2010-02-11T01:48:00.001-05:00

Psalm 106, composed by King David, is made up of two previous psalms:

vv 1–5 is from Psalm 57.7–11 with minor changes.
vv 6–13 is from Psalm 60.5–12 with almost no changes.

Of course David, the author, had the right to take apart pieces of his songs and poems and use them in whatever way he desired. Putting parts of two psalms together, of course, creates a new psalm with a whole new purpose and occasion for use.

It appears from the content of Psalm 106 that this Community Lament psalm was brought about by a threat from Edom. In a territorial dispute with Edom, Israel had lost a skirmish and was lamenting their loss and looking to the LORD to empower them in their re-engagement in battle.

“Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom? Have you not rejected us, O God? You do not go out, O God, with our armies. Oh grant us help against the foe, for vain is the salvation of man! With God we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our foes” (Psalm 106.10–13).

Edom was a country in the mountainous region south of the Dead Sea that was peopled by the descendents of Esau. Esau was the firstborn son of Isaac and Rebekah, the twin brother of Jacob [renamed ‘Israel’]. Esau, a red-haired man, sold his right as firstborn to his brother for a bowl of red stew—‘Edom’ is the word for ‘red’ in Hebrew, so we are told that after this incident that “Therefore his name was called Edom” (Genesis 25.30). The ‘birthright’ (including the right to carry on the line of promise) was given to Jacob and Esau was ‘disinherited’ (as far as the promise is concerned).

When Israel left the wilderness, they sought passage through Edom to get to the Promised Land, but the Edomites denied them passage (Numbers 20). Since they were ‘relatives,’ the Israelites regarded this as an egregious breach of hospitality which they remembered throughout their history. There were continual territorial skirmishes over the borders of Israel and Edom (for example, Judges 11.17; 2 Kings 8.20–22). There was always an uneasy relationship between them.

Later, in the times of Jesus, the Edomites had become the country of Idumea (a part of the Roman Empire south of Judea). The Idumean king was “Herod the Great,” a despot who was reputed to be half-Edomite and half-Israelite. He is the one who attempted to murder the innocent children in the region of Bethlehem in an aborted attempt to kill the infant Messiah (Matthew 2.16–18). His son, Herod Antipas, is the one murdered John the Baptist (Matthew 14.1–10) and who participated in the condemnation of Christ (Luke 23.6–16). The Gospels contain great irony in showing an Edomite king condemning the Seed of Abraham to death.

In Psalm 108, the chastened nation, laments their defeat at the hands of the Edomites. Like Psalm 60, however, an ‘oracle’ of the LORD is recalled that God will ‘own’ all of the nations around Israel. His destiny is to rule the world through the Messiah, the son of David.

Psalm 107

2010-02-10T01:47:00.000-05:00

This Psalm of Thanksgiving is a wonderful, poetic psalm to read slowly and ponder because it has such an interesting structure. This is the first of the psalms that explicitly comes out of the exile of the southern kingdom (Judah) under the Babylonians (approx. 605–538 BC). The psalm focuses on thanking God for his ‘steadfast love’ (see blog post, “The Steadfast Love of the LORD” from November 15, 2009).

After the introduction, there are four ‘stanzas’ (so to speak), each of which ends with a common refrain. In these four stanzas, the worshipers acknowledge how God brought back those in captivity from four different locations and activities.

(vv 4–9) First, God brought back to a city (in Judah) those who wandered in desert wastes. This could refer to those who escaped the captivity by fleeing south to the Sinai Peninsula, a sparsely populated arid desert.
(vv 10–16) Second, God delivered those who were imprisoned in darkness. These may be the nobles of the land, who were taken to Babylon in chains (2 Chronicles 36.5–21).
(vv 17–22) Third, God healed those who were physically sick through their rebellion. Many who were exiled due to their rebellion were pressed into slavery or hard service. God heard their cry and delivered them from sickness and distress back to the land of Judah.
(vv 23–32) Fourth, God saved sailors who were caught in storms at sea. Most likely, these were exiles pressed into service of a foreign king (since, Israelites regarded the sea as a chaotic force opposed to God and rarely became sea-faring folk on their own). They, too, were brought to their desired haven (meaning, the land of Palestine).

Each stanza ends with the same refrain that is always followed by one more verse related to the preceding stanza before the next one begins:

“Let them give thanks to the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!” (vv 8, 15, 21, 31).

In addition to these four refrains, the song begins and ends with a recognition of the LORD’s steadfast love as the basis of thanksgiving.

Verse 1: “Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!”
Verse 43: “Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things; let them consider the steadfast love of the LORD.”

The steadfast love of the LORD is what we should consider every day of our lives.

Psalm 106

2010-02-09T01:46:00.001-05:00

This Historical Psalm is a companion to Psalm 105. Like that psalm it traces through the history of God’s dealings with Israel. In distinction to Psalm 104, however, Psalm 106 focuses less on God’s gracious care and more on Israel’s continual unfaithfulness to God and his covenant promises. Also, where Psalm 105 begins with the promises to Abraham, Psalm 106 begins nearly 500 years later, with Abraham’s descendents at the Red Sea after their deliverance from Egypt and ends earlier, in the period of the Judges before Israel’s conquest of the Promised Land.

The psalm traces eight key points of Israel’s failure to trust the LORD.

(vv 7–12) Israel at the Red Sea failed to trust the LORD’s promise of deliverance from the Egyptian Army (Exodus 14).
(vv 13–15) Israel’s wanton craving for meat and rejection of manna at Kibroth-hataavah (Numbers 11).
(vv 16–18) Korah’s rebellion against the authority of Moses and Aaron (Numbers 16).
(vv 19–23) The people’s crafting of the golden calf idol in rejection of pure, spiritual worship of the LORD (Exodus 32).
(vv 24–27) The nation listens to the ‘evil report’ of ten of the spies and refuse to make conquest of the Promised Land (Numbers 14).
(vv 28–31) At Baal Peor, the people mix with the Moabites in the spiritual immorality of idolatrous worship and in the physical immorality of cult prostitution (Numbers 25).
(vv 32–33) At Meribah the people rebel against Moses over their lack of water (Numbers 20).
(vv 34–46) Israel’s faithless failure to defeat the Canaanites completely leading to the cycle of sin, bondage, captivity, and deliverance under the Judges (Judges 2–3).

Perhaps the most important event of failure is the one that is only alluded to at the end of the psalm—the Babylonian Captivity.

"Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise" (Psalm 106.47).

The Babylonian captivity, in which the inhabitants of Judah were scattered into various nations in an attempt to destroy their national and religious identity, occurred about eight hundred years after the period of Judges. Perhaps the cycle of sin and deliverance which characterized the period of the judges was considered a good point to stop the recounting of Israel’s rebellion. Even though a great deal of history elapsed after the judges and before the captivity—including the establishment of the Davidic kingdom, the division of the nation into Israel (the Northern kingdom) and Judah (the Southern kingdom), the fall of the North to Assyria, and the ministry of all of the prophets—nothing happened that changed the cycle of rebellion and deliverance until God finally brought upon his rebellious people the ultimate covenant curse of being cast out of the Promised Land.

This makes the first few verses of the psalm even more poignant:

“Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people; help me when you save them, that I may look upon the prosperity of your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that I may glory with your inheritance” (Psalm 106.4–5).

The worshipers sing this song, not simply to remind themselves of their ancestors’ sinful rebellions and of God’s grace-filled deliverances. Those who sing this in faith count themselves among the LORD’s chastened people who look forward to the promised deliverance.

Psalm 105

2010-02-06T01:45:00.001-05:00

This is the second of three Historical Psalms in the Psalter (Psalms 78, 105, 106). This one begins with the promises to Abraham (vv 7–9; Genesis 12), especially the promise of the land. It them moves historically through the patriarchs' nomadic experiences (vv 12–15; Genesis 12–50) focusing on Joseph’s trials and triumph in Egypt (vv 16–22; Genesis 37–50). The story of Israel’s bondage in Egypt and Moses’ deliverance follows (vv 23–38; Exodus 1–15). Finally, the psalm recounts God’s provision in the wilderness leading to the conquest and possession of the land of Palestine (vv 39–45; Exodus 16–Joshua).

The presentation of Israel’s early history is selective—it focuses on God’s faithfulness in promise, provision, and deliverance. It doesn’t focus on the theme of the people’s unfaithfulness to God’s grace which is prominent in the first books of the Bible. The next psalm, Psalm 106 will carry this historical review forward and focus on Israel’s national rebellion and God’s response. It is possible that both of these anonymous psalms were meant to be sung together as a balanced presentation of sin and grace.

As is common in the Psalter because it is a book of such length and complexity, there is a verse that can be easily overlooked but stands out in its importance:

“Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!" (Psalm 105.4).

In context, this is a part of a string of exhortations at the beginning of the psalm about how the worshipers should respond to the gracious acts of God that the psalm is about to recount in detail. Yet it stands out because of its unique wording as a call to all worshipers.

The living God is not presented in the Bible as One who customarily works with and through people regardless of their heart-attitude or spiritual state. It is true that the LORD sovereignly draws people to himself to become his worshipers (John 6.44); most of us can look back on our life and see how God worked before we were ever conscious of him to bring us to faith in Christ. Yet when we are in relationship with him we are called to ‘seek’ him—that is, engage in those activities that will allow us to draw near to him (James 4.8).

Psalm 105.4 urges us to seek two things from God—his strength and his presence. The second line literally reads, “Seek his face always,” in which ‘face’ stands for God’s whole person, his presence (this is a figure of speech called a ‘metonymy of the part for the whole’). The face of a person is a good measure of the attitude of the person—when he looks straight at you with kindness you know that you have favor in his sight. “Seek that from God” the psalmist is saying.

Think of the blessing God gave to the Aaronic priests to place upon the people:

“The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance (lit. face) upon you and give you peace”
(Numbers 6.24–26).

In Psalm 105.4, however, it is the word “continually” that draws worshipers to do what is being exhorted. It promotes an conviction that God’s presence (which provides his strength) is what we continually need. To seek his presence—that is his smile on our path in life—requires that we draw near to him, seeking to do those things he has commanded for us to do in order to draw near: Read and reflect on his word, pray, spend time with God’s people, talk about him to others, celebrate our redemption together in Communion.

Listen to this exhortation today.

“Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually!" (Psalm 105.4).

Obey what is commanded. Seek the LORD today and every day.

Psalm 104

2010-02-05T01:44:00.000-05:00

The creation account in Genesis 1 is the basis for all that follows in the unfolding Bible story. It doesn’t argue for God’s existence; it simply starts with God (“in the beginning, God…”) and asserts that everything else came from him. The Bible writers did not feel it was necessary to prove God’s existence, since he is the “uncaused cause,” the only self-existent being on whom everything else depends for its existence. His place as the Creator of everything means that everything else can only be viewed in its relationship to him. That’s why the first chapter of the Bible sets the stage for all that follows: Because he is Creator and Sustainer, he must also be Judge and Redeemer.

Psalm 104 is a reflection on the creation account in Genesis 1. In fact, it follows the basic structure of the Genesis account, as many interpreters have noted (See Derek Kidner, Psalms 73-150, p 368; and the notes in the ESV Study Bible, p 1070): I grew up in a home in which I was taught the principles of Darwinian evolution from earliest childhood. It was only much later in life after I became a Christian that I began to realize that my father’s lack of belief in God had little to do with evolution or with any intellectual struggle. His insistence that there is no God was at its heart a moral struggle. If there is a Creator then we must be dependent on him. If all things depend on the living God for their purpose and for their continued existence, then he must have moral demands on our lives. The Creator God has a right to tell us how to live. That’s why so many people in our contemporary world deny that God is their Creator—because it nips in the bud any demands he might make upon their lives that they don’t want to hear.

But those of us who know the LORD sing of his creative power and sustaining providence. The psalm calls us to rejoice in the truth of creation by the word of God—it means we have security, purpose, significance, responsibility and love in a mysteriously painful and surprisingly beneficial world.

Psalm 103

2010-02-04T01:43:00.001-05:00

This beautiful psalm of David is a Hymn of Praise to God. Unlike many of the psalms of David, this one does not focus on personal difficulties, harassment by enemies, personal guilt, or the need for forgiveness. Rather, David, the “sweet psalmist of Israel” (2 Samuel 23.1), teaches us here to sing a hymn of admiring gratitude to God.

The psalm begins with self-exhortation. Each worshiper addresses his or her own soul with an encouragement to bless the LORD, giving care to remember all of the ways he has shown his grace (vv 1–2). Beginning in verse three, the worshipers remind themselves of God’s wonderful benefits by reviewing God’s saving acts in the past that have gathered, nurtured, sustained, forgiven, and provided for his people (vv 3–19). The psalm then ends as it began: The worshipers call upon all other things—angelic beings and all the material creation—and exhorts them to join in the praise of the LORD.

The heart of the psalm is found in vv 15–18:

“As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments” (Psalm 103.15–18).

The covenant blessings of God extend not only to those who believe his promises but to their children and their children’s children. This is sometimes called the ‘family covenant.’ This was true for Israel, the physical descendents of Abraham, to whom the LORD said:

“And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you” (Genesis 17.7).

It is also true to those of us who are under the new covenant. Though we live under a different covenant than Israel under the Law, the gospel still includes the promise of family blessing. The apostle Peter said on the day of Pentecost:

“For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself” (Acts 2.39).

God grants us, as his people, the privilege and responsibility of nurturing those who will be his people in the coming generations. After all, the apostle tells us that in some unique way, the children of believers are “holy” (1 Corinthians 7.14). While this doesn’t mean that every child raised in a Christian home will become a believer, it tells us that, because of the parents’ spiritual status, the children are set apart in some way. At the very least, they can be raised in the “discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6.4) and allowed the great privilege of hearing the word of God from childhood (2 Timothy 3.15).

In this psalm, we can remind ourselves to bless God for all the ways he has blessed us. This involves, first and foremost, his actions on our behalf to make us members of his covenant people. It also includes the children he has given to us to raise up to become those who will be his covenant people in the future long after we have left this life to enter his presence.

Psalm 102

2010-02-03T01:42:00.000-05:00

This Individual Lament Psalm is different than most in that the nature of the complaint is not specified. The psalmist clearly expresses his feelings of disconnection from God and other people (vv 6–7), of sorrow and loss of interest in life (vv 3–5, 9), and even of being mistreated by God (v 10) but the reason for these feelings is not specified. He speaks of “enemies” who taunt him (v 8) and of God’s “indignation and anger” (v 10) but it is not clear whether it is one or the other— other’s sins against him or his own sins—that are troubling him.

The contrast in the psalm between the psalmist’s plight and God’s eternity may point to the answer. He speaks of “my days” (vv 3, 11, 23, 24) but of “your [God’s] years” (vv 24, 27). The contrast is made most explicit in v 24:

“’O my God,’ I say, ‘take me not away in the midst of my days—you whose years endure throughout all generations!’” (Psalm 102.24)

His feelings of isolation, neglect and sorrow are contrasted as well with his worshipful acknowledgement of God’s eternity, saving power, and victorious reign (vv 1–11 contrasted with vv 12–22; and vv 23–24 contrasted with vv 25–28).

Psychologists sometimes speak of the ‘myth of specialness’ referring to an inborn sense that many children have that they are meant to be special—they won’t experience the diseases and infirmities of age like their grandparents, they are free from the weight of responsibility that seems to plague their parents, all possibilities lie open before them as they look forward in life. One of the realities that all people must confront as they move through life is the realization that we are not ‘special’ in the sense of being free from the normal experiences of life in a fallen world, our ‘destiny’ may be unique but not as fulfilling and world-changing as we anticipated. Eventually we too will age, become infirm and die. We are, after all, ‘merely human.’

Psychologists also speak at times of another aspect of life-experience called ‘existential isolation’ which is that profound sense of overwhelming loneliness people sometimes feel when they realize they are a tiny speck of matter in the universe. Some people carry this feeling with them always, which can be a deep problem, but most touch on it only at moments of difficulty or on thoughtful starry nights when they contemplate life.

When I read this psalm I think of those concepts and the ways I have at times experienced them in life. Perhaps the psalmist’s “complaint” of “faintness” (see Title) reflects his contemplation of his inadequacy to comprehend the universe, his insignificance compared to its vastness, and the brevity of his life. His own struggle with his mortality and existential isolation.

It that is the case, then the writer of Psalm 102 also points us to the antidote to those feelings. The answer is not just to experience our insignificance, ponder it, and go on (as postmodern philosophers would have us believe). The answer is to compare what and who we are to who God is—this is what the psalmist does. While our lives are in many ways filled with unexplained mystery, short, and uncertain we can praise the One who is eternal and promises to be victorious in the end. Our life is a chapter in the eternal story in which we are not the heroes; God is. Our significance—and our security and purpose—are only secure if we are connected by faith to the God of eternity. He is the One of whom it is said,

“Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end. The children of your servants shall dwell secure; their offspring shall be established before you” (Psalm 102.25–28).

Psalm 101

2010-02-02T01:41:00.000-05:00

This psalm is a good example of the fact that the psalms were written to be used in worship—the writers intended them as worship songs and God himself compiled them as worship songs. Each one has value for the worshipers; we are to seek to make each one our own as a song of praise and a prayer to God.

King David himself was the writer of this psalm and the content shows it to be a Royal Psalm, a song written about the establishment of God’s kingdom through David and his descendents. Each king was a representative of God’s rule and a prototype of the Messianic King who was to come from David’s line. This psalm was composed to remind the worshipers that the king was to seek integrity in his own life and in his rule over the nation.

In the psalm, the king speaks as the representative of the covenant people; his lifestyle and integrity is meant to represent covenant faithfulness. As he seeks this in his ruling of the kingdom, God’s people find in him a model for their behavior in daily life. Note that the king seeks to be blameless within himself (vv 2–4) and then seeks to promote faithfulness among the people by punishing the proud, favoring the faithful, and protecting the weak from the oppression of the strong (vv 5–7). He ends with an affirmation that this is his continual aim in life (v 8).

Before Jesus came, the Jewish people sang this song with and about their king to focus his (and their) attention on their calling to be a holy people in the world. As Christians, we can sing this song as well, now acknowledging that what the Davidic kings represented has come in reality in the person of Jesus Christ. As God’s ideal King, he rules over us with all of the integrity for which David and his heirs aimed. We do not pray for our king to embody these ideals; rather we rejoice that he does. So the focus is on our own hearts and what kind of people we should be as a result.

Jesus told us, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11.29). In saying this, he was telling us to imitate him in our attitudes and behaviors. That is what this psalm is about for us today. The Lord seeks to transform his people so that the father and mother in their family, the worker at his job, and the leader in the church is seeking to live with the integrity and faithfulness of the Lord himself who is the true singer of this psalm.

Ask the Lord today to help you reflect on his character and to work that same character into the way you relate to others as you move through life.

Parallelism in the Psalms

2010-01-31T18:14:00.003-05:00

Traditional English poetry commonly uses two distinctive methods of communication: meter and rhyme. Meter has to do with the number of ‘beats’ in a line and rhyming usually involves ending two clauses with words that sound similar. Consider:

Mary had a little lamb, her feet were white as snow,
(And) Ev’rywhere that Mary went, her lamb was sure to go.

Each line has thirteen beats and the words snow and go rhyme. A moment’s reflection makes it clear why it is difficult to translate poetry from one language to another.

Hebrew poetry was different. It does use meter, though that is not easily reflected in translation. It doesn’t, however, use rhyme. What Hebrew poetry used is called ‘parallelism.’ This is not only found in the psalms but in all of the wisdom and prophetic literature of the Bible (Job, Proverbs, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, and the messages of the prophets). Any elevated speech used various kinds of parallelism to communicate spiritual truth. A full study of Hebrew parallelism is very complex (many books have been written about it) but there are a few simple facts that will help you to read the psalms with more understanding and appreciation.

Parallelism involves using relatively short sentences usually made up of two brief clauses that ‘parallel’ one another in some way. Sometimes a line has three brief clauses. More rarely, there are four.

The most important kind of parallelism you need to know is called, ‘Complete Parallelism.’ This is where every single term or phrase in one line is parallel to an equivalent term or phrase in the second. There are three kinds of complete parallelism.

1. Synonymous parallelism is where the same thought is repeated twice in different but synonymous (meaning ‘nearly the same’) words. For example:

The cords of death encompassed me;
the torrents of destruction assailed me; (Psalm 18.4)

Note how each of the phrases in the first line corresponds to a similar phrase in the second line. In this case, the phrases all appear in the same order, but that isn’t necessary. The order may change but if the same ideas in the first line all appear in similar but different terms in the second line, this kind of parallelism occurs. In other words, synonymous parallelism simply involves saying something twice.

2. Contrasting parallelism is where the two lines balance one another or contrast a thought. (This is usually called ‘antithetic parallelism’):

For you save a humble people,
but the haughty eyes you bring down. (Psalm 18.27)

These two lines are parallel (each word or phrase corresponds to a word or phrase in the other line) but instead of saying the same thing twice the psalmist expresses the opposite or contrasting idea in the second line.

3. Comparative Parallelism (usually called ‘emblematic parallelism’) involves a simile or a metaphor. The thought expressed in one line is compared to that of the other, as in:

As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. (Psalm 103.13)

Here a human father is compared to the LORD in his compassion for his children. Psalm 18.14 is probably an example of this though not as clear as the above:

And he sent out his arrows and scattered them;
he flashed forth lightnings and routed them. (Psalm 18.14)

Here lightning is compared to arrows in the parallel thought.

There are other kinds of parallelism you will find in the psalms. Just to mention two:
Incomplete parallelism is where only some of the terms are parallel in the two lines but there are the same number of terms. In other words, the two lines are parallel but the parallelism isn’t complete. This is very common.
Formal parallelism is where the second (and, sometimes, the third) line simply continues the thought of the first line but the two lines are usually balanced in length. This is also very common in psalms.

I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,
And I am saved from my enemies. (Psalm 18.3)

This may all sound very complicated. It is not something you need to memorize. The most important one to remember is the fact that the psalmists usually expressed their deepest emotions by using parallel ideas. In our modern Bibles, the way the psalms are broken down into lines (as in poetry) helps us to see the parallel lines of thought that are being expressed.

In our culture, black preachers often effectively use parallelism—this may be because, under slavery in generations past, the psalms and the prophets most clearly expressed the feelings of the oppressed. They have a cadence that reflects their use of parallelism in repeating ideas, and often getting an ‘Amen’ from the worshipers, after their repetition. In fact, our current president, Barack Obama, often displays in appropriate ways the effective use of parallelism in public speaking.

This week, as we read Psalms 101–105, note that some (like Psalm 101) does not use clear parallelism while others (like Psalm 102) use parallelism constantly.

Psalm 100

2010-01-23T01:40:00.002-05:00

Since the beginning of the Christian movement, the psalms have always been sung in the churches. Even in the middle ages (around 600–100 AD), the psalms were the primary expression of praise in the worship of the church. Usually, however, the people did not participate; the psalms were chanted in Latin while the people watched and listened.

During the Reformation of the Church in the 1500’s, there was a movement to restore the singing of the psalms to the people in their own languages. John Calvin, whose work influenced primarily the Northern European countries of Switzerland, France, England and the Netherlands, was particularly instrumental in re-instituting the psalms in the language of the people. Beginning in 1539, he edited, with the help of many others, the Genevan Psalter. By 1562, the Genevan Psalter contained metrical versions of all 150 psalms, and became the primary songbook of the Protestant and Reformed churches. One hundred years later, the Scottish Psalter of 1650 was produced which is still in use in some churches. What are called ‘metrical psalms’ put each of the psalms in verse form using both identifiable meters and rhyming the first and third lines of each verse.

Psalm 100 is most likely the most well-known psalm in history. I grew up attending (very irregularly) a church that had a Reformed heritage; I remember singing the “Old 100th” every week. It also happens to be the psalm with the most recognizable tune because it is the same tune to which the doxology became connected later (“Praise God from whom all blessings flow…”). Here is the metrical version of Psalm 100 from the Scottish Psalter:

Psalm 100

1 All people that on earth do dwell,
sing to the Lord with cheerful voice:
Him serve with mirth, his praise forth tell,
come ye before him and rejoice.

2 The Lord ye know is God indeed,
without our aid he did us make;
We are his flock, he doth us feed,
and for his sheep he doth us take.

3 O enter then his gates with praise,
approach with joy his courts unto;
Praise, laud, and bless his Name always,
for it is seemly so to do.

4 For why? the Lord our God is good,
his mercy is for ever sure;
His truth at all times firmly stood,
and shall from age to age endure.

One interesting note: I grew up singing the third line of the first verse as, “Him serve with fear, his praise forth tell.” In preparing for this blog, I was surprised to find that the original words, the Scottish Psalter of 1650 were “Him serve with mirth, his praise forth tell,” which is more accurate to the psalm in which the word ‘fear’ does not occur. It is also ironic that Scottish Presbyterians, who are particularly known for soberness and fearing God, used the word mirth (meaning gladness, gaiety, laughter) to describe the appropriate worship of God.

The following link will allow you to listen to Psalm 100 through a You Tube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eshb2FJTaxI

Psalm 99

2010-01-22T01:39:00.000-05:00

This psalm continues a series of Hymns to the LORD the Ruler of Creation that began with Psalm 93. The unique emphasis of Psalm 99 is the call to respond to God’s holiness (vv 3, 5, 9).

The root idea of the word holy is ‘set apart’—the LORD is set apart from everything that he has made. The gulf between the creature and the Creator is unfathomable; if that gulf is to be bridged it must be from the side of the Holy One who reaches out to us. No unaided human could or would reach out to God.

Among the pagan nations around Israel, any sense of awe in the presence of their gods was connected with their power. If you didn’t worship them they might whack you. The LORD, however, was holy in and of himself and not merely because of his power. God’s holiness is because of who he is not simply what he does. The LORD is ethically pure—he cannot approve of evil and has no pleasure in it (Psalm 5.4); he cannot tolerate evil (Habakkuk 1.13); in fact, he abhors it and cannot encourage sin in any form (James 1.13). The Canaanite gods were vindictive, capricious and morally indifferent to evil. Holiness, in the sense that we confront it in the Bible, is a unique aspect of biblical thought.

The proper response to the holiness of God is awe—a sense of reverential fear in the presence of the all-holy LORD of all creation. In the thrice-repeated reminder that God is holy is the fact that his holiness is not merely one of his many attributes: it is the internal character of the LORD that is reflected in all of his attributes so that his love is a holy love, his justice is a holy justice and his wrath is a holy wrath.

It should be noted as well that the middle section of the psalm (vv 6–7) the worshipers are reminded that God has provided for them a way of access to his presence despite the fact that his holiness implies his moral distance from humans:

“Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel also was among those who called upon his name. They called to the Lord, and he answered them. In the pillar of the cloud he spoke to them; they kept his testimonies and the statute that he gave them” (Psalm 99.6–7).

The references to Moses, Aaron and Samuel, to the pillar of cloud, and to the LORD’s testimonies and statutes draws to mind the entire system of worship given to the people of Israel—the tabernacle, the priesthood, and the laws of sacrifices and offerings by which the people could continue in fellowship with an all-holy God. Though he is holy, he has provided for sinful people to be cleansed from the pollution of sin and to maintain fellowship with him.

Under the new covenant, God is no less holy than he was under the old covenant. The brilliance of his holiness, however, was veiled in the flesh of the Son of God so that we might approach him and enjoy him. But the invitation of the psalm is still open through the priesthood and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ:

“Exalt the Lord our God; worship at his footstool! Holy is he!” (Psalm 99.5)

Psalm 98

2010-01-21T01:38:00.001-05:00

This psalm is another in a series of Hymns to the LORD the Ruler of Creation.

The layout of this psalm on the page divides it into three movements each of which call for a physical response from the hearers:

(vv 1–3) Israel is called to “sing to the LORD” for their salvation which God has openly worked for them in the sight of the nations.
(vv 4–6) All the nations are called to “make a joyful noise to the LORD” with musical instruments for Israel’s salvation that they have witnessed.
(vv 7–9) All nature is called to join in the song with shouting, clapping, and singing to acknowledge God’s just rule.

It is instructive to us that the word ‘salvation’ occurs in each of the first three verses. Whenever we read the word salvation we must remember that it was in Bible times a secular word—that means it was not a word used only in religious contexts. When we think of salvation we tend to think only of our redemption that was purchased by the blood of Christ. It is true that some of our most favored verses use the word in just that way (Acts 4.12; Titus 2.11) yet the word itself merely means ‘to deliver from some danger.’ If a person said to you, ‘When you’re out, would you stop at the store and pick up a dozen?’ you would ask, ‘A dozen what?’ The word dozen needs to be connected to some object which is either clear in the context or must be identified in words. In the same way, the word salvation means deliverance and, unless the context makes clear what the person is being delivered from it must identified in words.

In this psalm, the salvation of his people seems to refer to a number of things:

God’s deliverance of his people from Egypt
God’s provision of his people in the wilderness while the nations looked on.
God’s protection of his people as they traveled through Edom and Moab on their way to the Promised Land.
God’s supply of victory in the conquest.
God’s care for his people in their land.

It is these aspects of salvation that the Gentile nations and the elements of nature have ‘seen’ (v 3). It is because of these things that they have observed that they are called to acknowledge the LORD’s right to rule over creation.

Psalm 97

2010-01-20T01:37:00.000-05:00

The New Testament tells us that when Jesus returns he will bring both judgment and salvation. He will come to judge “those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 1.8) and “to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Hebrews 9.28).

That is the subject of Psalm 97 as well. This psalm attaches the reality of judgment and salvation to the fact that the LORD reigns over all the earth—which will be one of the results of the return of Christ. The psalm divides into two halves: the first (vv 2–7) speaks of the implications of the reign of the LORD for those who defy him; the second (vv 8–12) tells of the implications of his reign for those who love him.

Notice the impact of the LORD’s reign on the ungodly:

“Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne” (v 2). His magnificent character is the basis of his judgment and demands a moral response from people.

“Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries all around” (v 3). His judgment of the ungodly will be most severe.

“The mountains melt like wax before the Lord" (v 5). On that day, all the hiding places and strongholds of the world will not protect anyone.

“All worshipers of images are put to shame, who make their boast in worthless idols” (v 7). Those who have not worshiped the LORD but have trusted in worthless idols will be shamed.

On the other hand, the second half reveals the joy the godly experience at the fact of God’s reign:

“Zion hears and is glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoice, because of your judgments, O LORD” (v 8). The same judgment that brings shame to the unbelieving will bring joy to the godly.

“For you, O LORD, are most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods” (v 9). The exclusive devotion of the faithful to the LORD is vindicated when he exposes the futility of idol worship.

“He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked” (v 10). God’s people will experience deliverance when God comes in judgment.

“Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart” (v 11). When all hiding places are removed, the righteous will rejoice in the light of God’s truth.

As Christians, we are to “eagerly wait for him” (Hebrews 9.28) and to “love his appearing” (2 Timothy 4.8). That is because, when the Lord Jesus returns, we anticipate his salvation and the joy of his presence. Yet we should never forget that he will also come to righteously judge those who have defied him, to expose the futility of lives built on anything other than his truth, and to vindicate his right to rule over all creation. While we have much more understanding of exactly what that will look like than those who sang Psalm 97 under the old covenant, they were rejoicing in the same truth.

Psalm 96

2010-01-19T01:36:00.001-05:00

During his reign, King David had the ark of the covenant brought into Jerusalem and placed in a tabernacle (tent) that he had built as a temporary place of worship; David did this in preparation for his son, Solomon, to build the temple after his death. After the ark was brought into the city, David appointed some of the priests to provide music for the temple. He gave them a song which is recorded in 1 Chronicles 16.8–36. Interestingly, parts of this song are found in the Psalter: vv 8–22 are repeated in Psalm 105.1–15, vv 23–33 are found in Psalm 96.2–13a, and vv 35–36 appear in Psalm 106.47–48. Even though these psalms are not attributed to David in the Psalter (they are anonymous), it is evident that his song at least formed the basis on which they were composed. Since the three psalms have minor modifications of the song recorded in 1 Chronicles and two of them are significantly lengthened, they may have been adapted at a later time to the form that we find them in the Psalter.

Psalm 96 is a Hymn to the LORD the Ruler of Creation (Psalms 93, 95–100). It is written for the Gentiles and calls them to come and worship the LORD and acknowledge his kingship. One verse that stands out is,

“Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth” (Psalm 96.9)

These words “the splendor of holiness” could mean ‘holy attire,’ presumably meaning the vestments of the officiating priests in the temple (see ESV margin) but the dress of the priests is never referred to elsewhere in such a context.

“Splendor of holiness” also could mean the beauty of personal holiness—the idea would be that when God’s people are seeking to live lives of personal holiness and obedience, their praise is particularly grand.

But the parallelism of the verse seems to point to the meaning of “splendor of holiness” as the magnificent presence of the all-holy God. The reason this seems to be the meaning is the parallel clause, “tremble before him all the earth.” We would tremble in the presence of the holy God; trembling would not be the response we would have to our own devotion in worship.

While under the new covenant, we have a clearer revelation of God’s grace and love, it does not change our appreciation of the presence of God in worship. He is still the God “who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see” (1 Timothy 6.16). He is still ‘a consuming fire’ (Hebrews 12.29). And he still says, “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11.44; 1 Peter 1.16).

An appreciation of God’s holiness should characterize the worship of God’s people. Ask yourself how can you can make this more a part of your personal worship of the LORD.

“Does God Have Feathers?”

2010-01-17T00:00:00.005-05:00

As a new Christian I frequently heard an illustration of why God became a Man:

“If you saw an anthill that was about to be destroyed by a new housing project and you wanted to warn them, what would be the best way? You could sit beside their anthill and talk to them. You could set up signs around their anthill. You could produce tiny booklets and drop them into their anthill. None of that would work. The best thing would be for you to become an ant, go to them, and speak to them in their language.”

Now the point, of course, is that our God did just that—God the Son, the second Person of the Trinity, assumed a human nature, came among us, and spoke to us both warnings of what is to come and promises of his salvation. The illustration breaks down at many points but chiefly in the fact that the difference between God and humans is far greater than that between humans and ants—after all, as 'creatures' we share the same ‘make-up’ (DNA) as ants!

When God became a human being, he chose to enter our world and to speak to us in our language, using words and concepts that we can understand. That simple statement raises questions that are enormously difficult—thick books have been written about it, doctoral dissertations have been advanced around it, different and opposing theological schools have been built around it. It has, in the last fifty years, produced ‘Feminist Theology.’ The virtual denial of it has produced a contemporary, defective view of God called ‘Free-will Theism.’

You don’t need to know anything about those things (or even want to know) in order to understand the basic implications of the fact that God became a Man. The idea that God spoke to us in our language is often described as ‘anthropomorphic’ (from the Greek for ‘human form’). This means that God allowed himself to be “described or thought of as having a human form or human attributes” so that we could understand him (Webster's Dictionary). In himself, God is ‘wholly other,’ completely unlike us; we have no way to understand the living God in his essence which is why he says:

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55.9).

So that I can provide you just with the basic contours of what that implies about God and about the Bible, let’s consider three implications of God's accommodation to human language.

God Does Not Change

A basic characteristic of God as he revealed himself in the Bible is that he is eternal (Psalm 90.2; 102.27). This means he lives in a timeless ‘now’ and does not experience time as a measure of existence. As a result God does not change (Numbers 23.19; Malachi 3.6; James 1.17). Time is, after all, simply the measure of change.

Now God reveals himself in the Bible as deliberating, making decisions, even changing his mind (Genesis 1.26; 6.6). Since we cannot fully comprehend an eternal being who does not relate within time, God revealed himself in ‘human terms.’ We know from the very nature of God that he does not ever learn something he did not know, he doesn't need to gather facts and make a decision, and he cannot change his mind. He even tells us this:

“God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” (Numbers 23.19)

This verse must inform our reading of the Bible. Since we are created beings, bound by both space and time, we cannot understand an eternal, infinite, and spiritual being. We can only understand him by comparison to things we do understand and experience. God condescends to our need by revealing himself in our terms.

God is not a Man…or a Woman

Another implication of this idea is that, though God reveals himself in human terms, it does not mean that he is human even in the sense of having gender. Consider this foundational verse from Genesis 1:

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1.27).

However we define the ‘image of God’ in the human, this verse makes it clear that it requires both male and female in community to express the image in the world. God characterizes himself as having both male and female characteristics (as we generally understand them) but it does not mean he is either male or female.

Feminist theology has done a lot with this basic fact and, I believe, they’ve taken a wrong turn. Some feminists have concluded that God is ‘androgynous’—neither male nor female but having characteristics of both. That seems to be like ‘making God in our image.’ To turn it around, God is an eternal, spiritual being—in order to reveal himself in human language, he uses both ‘maleness’ and ‘femaleness’ to give us an adequate understanding of him in both his ‘soft and nurturing’ (female) and ‘firm and strong’ (male) characteristics.

We must wrestle with the fact that God, consistently and with no variation, revealed himself in the Bible in terms of the male gender—The Bible exclusively uses male pronouns (he, him, his) and male titles (King, Father, Warrior) to refer to God. It ascribes female characteristics to God by using similes (Isaiah 42.14; 66.13, God is ‘like a woman’ and he relates ‘as a mother’). The Bible never invites us to address God as “Mother” or “she”—that was only done in fertility religions in the ancient world. This does not make God a ‘Man’ (male) or assume male superiority, but the consistency of God’s revelation of himself in male terms is not something we can discard as merely ‘gender biased’ language.

God is Like…a Bird

A related implication of the fact that God revealed himself in human language is illustrated in the following verse:

“He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge” (Psalm 91.4).

‘Pinions’ are the large, quill feathers of a bird that are used in flight--usually a large bird, like an eagle. Most of us read this verse and don’t ask the question “Does God have feathers?” We may vaguely remember the difference between a simile (which compares two things by using the words ‘like’or 'as') and a metaphor (which compares two things without using the words ‘like’ or 'as'). We instinctively know that Psalm 91.4 involves a metaphor—it doesn’t say ‘God is like a mother eagle protecting her young.’ Instead it communicates the same thing using poetic language.

When God used human language, he revealed himself as a ‘rock’ (Deuteronomy 32.4; Psalm 62.2; and frequently), as a ‘fountain of water’ (Jeremiah 2.13; John 4.14), as a ‘dread warrior’ (Jeremiah 20.11), and in many other ways. In reading the psalms, we come across this use of language on nearly every page. In revealing himself in human language, he chose human terms, images, and experiences as the means by which he expressed his character, motivations and behaviors to us.

This is merely a brief overview of an immensely complicated subject. Yet we need to have some understanding of it if we aren’t to read the Bible—and especially the Psalms—in a crassly literal way and adopt outlandish ideas about God and his work. The living God who is great beyond our ability to comprehend, in order to make himself known in terms that we could understand and relate to, has revealed himself both in his living word (Jesus Christ) and in his written word (the Bible) using human terms, experiences, and analogies. Human language tells us accurately what God is like but it cannot fully communicate what God is in his essential nature.

Psalm 95

2010-01-16T23:22:00.002-05:00

This psalm continues the series of Hymns to God the Ruler of Creation begun with Psalm 93 and broken by Psalm 94. If you came from an Episcopal or Lutheran Church you may recognize this psalm as the Venite (from the Latin for the first word of the psalm, Come). The Venite is sung at Morning Prayer, the usual Sunday morning service. If you have been part of a church that sings more contemporary songs, you will note that verses six and seven of this psalm are the source of the well-known song, ‘Come, let us Worship and Bow Down.’

While the first half of the psalm sounds a note of worship, the last half sounds a note of warning:

Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest” (Psalm 95.8–10).

The psalmist is drawing upon a key event in the history of the nation of Israel. After God delivered them from bondage in Egypt and took them into the wilderness, they sent spies—one from each tribe—into the land of Canaan in preparation for the conquest. Ten of the twelve spies brought back a discouraging report which caused the people to doubt God. As a result, the LORD said the people would wander in the desert for forty years until that whole unfaithful generation died and was replaced by a new generation who would possess the land.

The psalmist writes these words as a warning to a later generation. Essentially he is saying, “Remember what our fathers did when they were unfaithful to the LORD? Remember how God punished them? Well then, today if you hear his voice calling you to obedience don’t harden your hearts.”

Much later, the New Testament writer of the letter to the Hebrews uses these verses in the same way (Hebrews 3.7–11). He quotes this same passage as the basis of a warning to Christians to remain faithful to the Lord in the midst of persecution and temptation. Just as a previous generation of God’s people failed to enter God’s ‘rest’ (which meant the land of Palestine in the Old Testament), our generation can miss God’s ‘rest’ (the Millennial Kingdom of Christ) by the same kind of unfaithfulness now. ‘Today’ is any day in the present age when we are called to live out of faithfulness to Christ.

This psalm speaks for us and to us long after it was penned. The call to live out of faithfulness to our Lord and King as we engage in our pilgrimage through a fallen world is just as pointed and powerful now as it was to those who first sang it in Solomon’s temple.

Psalm 94

2010-01-15T01:34:00.000-05:00

This Community Lament Psalm temporarily breaks the series of Hymns to God the Ruler of the World that began with Psalm 93 and end with Psalm 100. While we don’t know who wrote it or when it was written, the psalm gives us insight into the social conditions in Israel that would have been behind the psalm.

In 931 BC, Solomon’s son and successor, Rehoboam, made foolish decisions that caused the ten northern tribes to break away and form the northern kingdom which would afterward be called Israel. This left Rehoboam to rule over the southern kingdom of Judah, which contained Jerusalem, the temple, and the Aaronic priesthood. The first ruler of the northern kingdom, Jeroboam, sought to establish a rival religion (focused on two golden calves), a rival priesthood, and a rival temple, all centered in the city of Shechem (1 Kings 12.25–33). From this point forward, the people of Israel and Judah slowly degenerated into idolatry until the northern kingdom was conquered by Assyria in 722 BC, and the southern kingdom by Babylonia in 605 BC.

The history of God’s people during these centuries was one of decline. Judah had the privileges of the priesthood, temple, and Davidic dynasty, but that didn’t keep them faithful; it only made their decline slower. Despite the fact that the kings of Israel promoted a false form of worship, there were people in Israel who still centered their worship on the temple in Jerusalem and adhered to the Aaronic priesthood. In addition, there were prophets who were spokesmen for the LORD to both nations.

You can imagine what it would have been like to be a faithful worshiper of the LORD during this time. Many people threw themselves headlong into idolatry and made the LORD just another Canaanite fertility god; a few even practiced cult prostitution and child sacrifice. Some were mixing the true religion, revealed by God at Mount Sinai, with the pagan practices of the Canaanite tribes that preceded Israel. A diminishing number of the people were seeking to observe the law and worship the LORD as he prescribed for the covenant people. This group would have been a decreasing minority in both Israel and Judah as the years went on, and they would have felt it deeply.

That is the kind of situation that would have provided the background for this psalm. The psalmist exposes the character of the ‘wicked.’ They are presented as being more socially powerful, proud of their wealth and power, and dismissive of the LORD (vv 3–7, 20–21). In contrast, the ‘righteous’ (those who are seeking to follow the LORD and obey his word) experience God’s support and protection. The psalmist urges the righteous to remain faithful even though they experience his discipline (v 12).

It seems that we live in a similar time. Even though America has never been a ‘Christian’ nation (in anything like Israel was the covenant people of God), we live at a time when the Christian heritage of previous generations is rapidly being cast away—people are declining into immorality, false religion, counterfeit forms of ‘Christianity,’ and hatred of the true God and his people. We may often feel like those under the old covenant who tried to be faithful to the LORD as their culture declined. This psalm is one that speaks to us and speaks for us as we struggle to live faithfully for God:

“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15.4).

Psalm 93

2010-01-14T15:22:00.002-05:00

This is the first of a series of Hymns to God the Ruler of Creation (Psalms 93, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100). They exalt God for his powerful rule of all creation and his wise management of the nations and of history.

This psalm focuses on God’s control of the entire created order. Our modern scientific worldview makes it difficult for us to understand that in the ancient world, nature was a mysterious and powerful ‘living’ thing—which is why people so easily “exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!” (Romans 1.25). In opposition to these ideas, the psalmist asserts that God stands over and controls ‘nature.’

“Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved. Your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting” (Psalm 93.1b–2).

The idea that the word “shall never be moved” is not speaking in a literal, scientific sense. We know that all things in the universe are always in motion. Here it parallels the phrase “the world is established” and carries the idea that, despite the apparent chaos that nature periodically displays, it is in fact stable, because it is founded on the superior, sure and reliable faithfulness of the LORD.

In the ancient world, the ocean was an uncontrollable force; it is often used in the Bible to represent the raging, chaotic powers of the universe in opposition to God. The ancients could picture nothing more destructive or chaotic than the boiling ocean:

“The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring. Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the LORD on high is mighty” (Psalm 93.3–4).

God is the Creator and the Ruler of everything. He is mightier than what he created, and therefore controls its chaos.

In light of this, the psalmist concludes:

“Your decrees are very trustworthy; holiness befits your house, O Lord, forevermore” (Psalm 93.5).

The word “decrees” carries a double meaning: it is used of God’s moral law (translated ‘testimonies,’ Psalm 119.22, 24); it also may refer to God’s solemn ‘decrees’ by which he governs the nations and the natural world. In other words, God is not merely the Ruler of the natural world because he is more powerful. God is the moral Ruler of the universe who has given his word to his people and rules over their lives. His moral rule is the proof of his rule over all of creation.

Today, people think that the human race is on the verge of controlling all the natural ‘powers’ of the universe and that we have plumed the depths of the deepest ocean. Then an earthquake in Haiti reminds us that we are still at the mercy of ‘nature.’ As Christians, we know that only our God controls the world he has created.

Psalm 92

2010-01-13T01:32:00.001-05:00

The title of Psalm 92 indicates that it is a “Song for the Sabbath.” While we wouldn’t necessarily know this without the title, if we read the psalm in light of this note we can see how appropriate it was for Sabbath reflection. The emphasis on ‘morning and evening’ recalls the creation account’s repeated phrase: “And there was evening and there was morning, the _____ day” (Genesis 1.5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31). The rejoicing in the works of God’s hands (vv 4–5) recalls the fact that “on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done” (Genesis 2.2).

It is difficult for Christians to understand the significance of the Sabbath in the Bible. Once, in a home meeting, I asked the group if they felt that we, as Christians, should keep the fourth commandment—“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20.8). The majority of them said ‘Yes.’ They evidently did not understand the detailed instructions of what could or could not be done on the Sabbath. They also didn’t understand the consequences for not keeping the Sabbath faithfully, which was death! (Exodus 31.14).

There has always been disagreement about what the Sabbath regulations of the Old Testament mean for us today. Some groups, like Seventh Day Adventists and Seventh Day Baptists argue that the creation account and the fourth commandment (Genesis 2.1–3 and Exodus 31.12–17) require Sabbath observance as a perpetual human obligation. Some who hold to the ‘Reformed faith’ (Presbyterian and Reformed Churches) believe that Christ changed the Sabbath from the seventh day (Saturday) to the first day (Sunday) of the week and we are obligated to keep it as a day of worship and refreshment. There is, however, little agreement among Reformed Christians about what should be required or allowed on the ‘Christian Sabbath.’ Though some of us may remember Sunday ‘Blue Laws’ and may have known families in our youth who didn’t do anything ‘fun’ on Sundays, those ideas are often considered just ‘quaint’ today.

I personally believe that Christ fulfilled the Sabbath law and, in fact, all of the Ten Commandments in his life of obedience to the Father. As New Covenant believers, we are no longer “under the law” (Galatians 5.18); we are under “the law of Christ” (1 Corinthians 9.21; James 2.12—“the law of liberty”). That is, Christ fulfilled the Old Testament law in our place and took the consequences of our breaking it on himself in his death. As our Redeemer, he commands us to “observe all that [he has] commanded us” (Matthew 28.18). In the New Testament, he did not command Sabbath observance while he did repeat the other nine of the Ten Commandments.

What the Sabbath represented in the Old Testament—the believer’s trustful rest from his works—is fulfilled in Christ. Rather than doing away with the Sabbath, the idea is that we are to experience what the Sabbath represented, ‘rest’ in the Lord, every day of the week. Rather than one day in seven belonging to God, every day belongs to God as a day of worship and rest from our labors in Christ. Though we begin that ‘rest’ in this life, we are still awaiting the end-time Sabbath, a cessation from our struggles in a fallen world, in God’s eternal presence (Hebrews 4.9).

In the New Testament, the first day of the week is called ‘the Lord’s Day’ (Revelation 1.10). It was not set aside by command but simply by the practice of the apostles and the early church as a commemoration of the fact that the Lord Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week.
Psalm 92 was written “for the Sabbath” but the content of the psalm itself focuses on things Christians today should still praise God for—is works of creation and providence and the benefits of obeying his word.

Psalm 91

2010-01-12T01:31:00.001-05:00

The New Testament Letter to the Hebrews makes much of the fact that Moses was commanded by God to make the tabernacle “according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain” (Hebrews 8.5). This implies that there is a heavenly ‘original’ of which the earthly tabernacle was only a ‘copy’ (Hebrews 9.24; 10.1). That one idea invites a lot of reflection and it provides an important background to Psalm 91.

Psalm 91 is a beautiful psalm that describes the security of the faithful. Notice the movement of the psalm based on the pronouns ‘I’ (the psalmist, v 2), ‘you’ (the faithful, vv 3–13) and ‘I’ (the LORD, vv 14–16).

The psalm uses the image of seeking protection in the presence of the LORD: Many words of the psalm, particularly ‘shelter’ (v 1), ‘shadow’ (v 1), ‘refuge’ (vv 1, 2, 4, 9), ‘wings’ (v 4), and ‘dwelling place’ (v 9) all are used in the Old Testament to refer to the tabernacle and especially the equipment of the inner room of the tabernacle (‘the Most Holy Place’). The image, which we’ve noted before, is that of the cover of the ark of the covenant (called in scripture, ‘the mercy seat’) over which the wings of angelic beings called cherubim were outstretched. Believers are invited to place themselves (in their minds) in the presence of the LORD in the tabernacle. Hebrews 9 describes the scene:

“Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat.” (Hebrews 9.1-5).

In Psalm 91, the psalmist asserts that he himself finds refuge in the presence of the Lord and urges those who are seeking to live faithfully to God to do the same. Now it is clear that Old Testament believers knew that the living God could not be contained in a structure made by human beings (1 Kings 8.27; Acts 7.47–50). They knew that the LORD was present everywhere. Yet as their covenant God, he gave them an earthly place of worship and promised to be accessible to them when they came to seek him there. (See blog entry for October 4, 2009, ‘The Location of Worship in the Psalms’).

When they found refuge “under his wings” (Psalm 91.4), the Old Testament saints imagined themselves in the tabernacle finding protection in the place where the blood was sprinkled by the high priest on the Day of Atonement. We know that the tabernacle, the ark of the covenant, the cherubim, the high priest and the sprinkled blood of a sacrificial animal were all merely copies of heavenly realities (Hebrews 9.23–28). These have now been fulfilled in Christ who “has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf” (Hebrews 9.24).

The psalmist invites us into the very presence of God in heaven where the perfect sacrifice has been offered by the Son of God. His blood has been offered, not on a representative piece of equipment in a man-made structure but in the very presence of the living God. We can find refuge in the reality of our redemption at any time. Scripture assures us that we do not merely 'imagine' ourselves to be there; in Christ, we even now have access to the accepting presence of our holy and loving God "in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 2.6).

The Name of God in the Psalms

2010-01-10T00:00:00.002-05:00

Consider these two verses from the psalms:

“And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you” (Psalm 9.10).
“Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name” (Psalm 91.14).

In both of these psalms there is a stress on the need to ‘know God’s name.’ What does it mean to know God’s name? Much has been written about this and some of it is a bit difficult to grasp but it is extremely important to understand something about God’s name in the Old Testament in order to read the psalms—and the entire Bible—with worshipful understanding.

In the Hebrew Bible we are told that God has a personal name. It is represented by four Hebrew letters: Y-H-W-H, sometimes called the ‘Tetragrammaton’ which means, ‘four letters.’ Because the third commandment forbids taking the LORD’s name in vain (Exodus 20.3), some time long before Christ, people stopped speaking the name. Instead they replaced the four letters with the Hebrew word Adonai, which means Lord (as in Master, or Sovereign). In fact, while leaving the four letters in place wherever it appears in the Hebrew Bible, since the scribes wouldn’t alter the word of God, when the vowels were added later, they put the vowels for the word Adonai with the letters Y-H-W-H (read about how vowels were added to the consonantal text of the Old Testament in the blog post for October 25, 2009, entitled, “Inspiration of Scripture and the Psalms”). This produces a word which is technically unpronounceable but is meant to remind the reader to read the word Adonai whenever the name appears. This is how I was taught to read the Hebrew Bible, with strict instructions to never pronounce the Divine Name if reading the Hebrew Bible with a Jewish person. Many contemporary Jews, however, replace the four letters with ‘Hashem’—The Name rather than Adonai.

(As a side note, in using the vowels for Adonai with the letters Y-H-W-H, Christian scholars in the 1700’s came up with the word ‘Jehovah’ as the name of God. One wonders whether they ever took the time to consult a Rabbi on the matter! In a grammatical sense, the vowels don’t ‘work’ with the four letters and it resulted in a word that never existed before but became written into the American Standard Version of 1901 and was attached to the name of a cult that still exists. We can be sure that Jehovah was not the name of God in the Old Testament.)

Christians continued this practice in translating the Bible. This is why our English Bibles consistently translate the name of God by LORD written in all (or small) capitals. Now this is important: Whenever you read the word LORD in the Old Testament it stands for the name of God, Y-H-W-H. If it is written in small case or title case, Lord, it is simply the word Adonai. On the other hand, those places where it reads (in Hebrew) Y-H-W-H Adonai (which means ‘The LORD Lord’) it is translated ‘The Lord GOD’ to let the reader know that the Name of God appears in the phrase.

Now about the name: The Bible begins to use the name LORD in the second chapter of Genesis and he is referred to by this name throughout the history of the patriarchs of Israel (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, & the twelve sons of Jacob). But in Exodus, God says to Moses:

“I am the LORD (Y-H-W-H). I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty (El Shaddai), but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them” (Exodus 6.2–3).

How could God say in Exodus that the patriarchs didn’t know him as the LORD but only as God Almighty when his name is used in the story of their lives in Genesis? The traditional explanation (which I accept) is that the word ‘name’ is referring to God’s character which the name represents. The patriarchs knew God as the all-powerful, all-knowing God who made promises to them (El Shaddai); they didn’t know him as the covenant-keeping God, who fulfills the promises (Y-H-W-H). In other words, God’s name refers to the full revelation of his character as the God of the eternal covenant. Formerly they knew God in the generic sense; now, Moses is told, you will know me in the personal, relational sense as the faithful, covenant-keeping God. They knew the name Y-H-W-H, but they didn’t experience him in the way that name implies, as the God of the covenant, until the exodus from Egypt.

When God promises of the faithful worshiper, “I will protect him, because he knows my name” (Psalm 91.14) he is referring to knowing God as the faithful, covenant-keeping, promise-fulfilling God of the Bible. Our trust in God only grows as we experience him as he has revealed himself in his word. Since the days of Abraham, God has increasingly revealed himself and his character. As we read through the Bible, we have a complete revelation from God of what he wants us to know about him and how trustworthy he is. In Jesus Christ, God made the final and full revelation of his character, confirming and expanding what the Old Testament believers knew. In Christ, we find that God can be trusted in every way.

To know the name of God is to know his character as Y-H-W-H, the faithful God of the patriarchs, of the prophets and kings, and most importantly “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1.3; 1 Peter 1.3). Do you know God’s character? The only way to do that is to read the revelation of God in the Bible, reflect on it, and apply it to your life. Then you will know the name of God.

One Final Thought: While I personally don’t think that the third commandment is violated by simply pronouncing the name of God, there are compelling reasons for us as Christians to maintain the tradition of not pronouncing the Divine Name.

First of all, we don’t know the vowels that go with the four consonants, so the original way of saying the word has been lost to us.

Second, it is offensive to the Jewish people to pronounce the name of God—they consider it a violation of the third commandment (Exodus 20.7). I’m not convinced that is the meaning of the third commandment, but there is no purpose in being offensive, especially over a practice of such long usage that even Jesus followed in the Gospels.

Lastly, the apostle Paul tells us that when we call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are calling on Y-H-W-H (Philippians 2.9–11).

Psalm 90

2010-01-09T01:30:00.000-05:00

If we accept the title as authentic (which I do, see blog entry for December 6, 2009 entitled ‘The Titles of the Psalms’), then this is the oldest psalm in the Psalter. It was written by Moses who died around 1404 BC, when the nation of Israel was poised on the border of the Promised Land ready to enter and posses it. This means it was written before the tribes had been allotted their territory, before the Judges ruled, before King David, before the building of the temple…before those key Old Testament events that are in the background of almost every other psalm.

I preached from this psalm at the Memorial Service for both of my parents at the First Congregational Church in Ann Arbor in August 2008. I chose this psalm because of its stress on the temporary nature of human life compared to the eternality of the living God. I felt that the unbelievers in my extended family cannot accept the gospel of Christ because they can’t accept a more basic fact that the gospel is built on: the centrality and authority of God. Psalm 90 is sort of a ‘pre-evangelistic’ psalm, laying the foundation for our need for redemption.

Here, in part, is what I said:

But the conclusion of all this, is that there is something we should do:

“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90.12)

What does it mean to number our days? On one level it means simply to acknowledge the shortness of our lives and the poverty of our existence compared to God. To number our days is to see that, Yes, life, even a long life is a very short time; it is just a drop in the ocean of God’s eternity.

But it also means to count out our days and to seek what my grandfather told me to get—a heart of wisdom. A heart that acknowledges the grandeur of God; a heart that bows to his right to rule over life, his right to inform us how life ought to be lived.

And one more thing about a heart of wisdom: At the beginning, the psalm says of God, “you return man to dust.” In other words, because of our rebellion, God says to us, “Turn back! Return to the elements from which you were taken!” But the heart of wisdom says, ‘Return, O LORD! Turn back! Don’t leave us alone; make our brief existence worth something in your purposes!’

Without God, life is nasty, brutish, and short. Without God, we see the world from only a horizontal perspective, like Solomon’s vision of life “under the sun” in Ecclesiastes. “Under the Sun” is, life without a vertical dimension; without a divine perspective. But the heart of wisdom cries out to God, “Turn back, O Lord. Make our lives what you want them to be.”

Perhaps as we continue our earthly pilgrimage, each one of us, we can carry this with us. God wishes to give eternal significance to life. He wants us, in light of the brevity of our lives, to seek a heart of wisdom.

Psalm 89

2010-01-08T11:21:00.002-05:00

In reading the Old Testament we should not underestimate the importance of the Kings in the line of David. The LORD made a special covenant with David that assured him his descendents would always reign on the throne of Israel (2 Samuel 7). In essence, the promises of the Davidic covenant made the kings who descended from him each a ‘prototype’ of the Messianic king—who would also be a descendent of David. The Davidic kings were to rule as God’s appointed representatives over the earthly kingdom of God. These unique promises to David and his descendents were celebrated in the psalms and preached by the prophets (even to the Northern kingdom of Israel after they broke away and established their own kings); the degree to which the people understood and celebrated the Davidic king as a special gift of God’s love to them was reflected in their faithfulness to the LORD.

This is the only psalm written by Ethan the Ezrahite and we have no indication of the events that caused it to be written but it seems to have been some kind of military defeat of the anointed king of Israel (and perhaps his death in battle, vv 44–45). This psalm invites the worshipers to reflect on the apparent conflict between the promises of a faithful, loving God to the Davidic kings and the defeat of one of those kings in battle. Faith is always struggling with the promises of God and the seeming defeat of those promises in the trenches of real life in a fallen world. This psalm mixes the themes of a Royal Psalm (one that honors the Davidic King of Israel as God’s appointed representative of his kingdom on earth) and a Community Lament Psalm (a psalm in which the worshipers mourn God’s wrath against his anointed king).

As a psalm that was designed for worship, it begins with the conclusion:

“I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. For I said, ‘Steadfast love will be built up forever; in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.’” (Psalm 89.1-2).

The psalmists asserts, ‘God is faithful!’ before he rehearses the covenant promises and their apparent failure. Remember that we learn to worship through the psalms—the apparent failures of God’s promises are only that, ‘apparent.’ Not real. Faith allows us to rise above what we see now and observe life from heaven’s perspective—apparent failure is only a step on the way to ultimate fulfillment. It is often a way in which the LORD prepares a faithful people to receive the fulfillment of his promises.

The psalmist then rehearses the covenant faithfulness of the LORD shown in his redemption of Israel from bondage, his establishment of his people in the land, and his choice of David as king (vv 3–18). He reviews in poetic detail the promises to David—military power and victory, territorial expansion, and especially an eternal dynasty (vv 19–37). All of these promises are sealed by the eternal faithfulness of the LORD:

“…I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips. Once for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David. His offspring shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun before me. Like the moon it shall be established forever, a faithful witness in the skies.” (Psalm 89.33-37).

It is only in light of the security and veracity of the promises of the Davidic covenant that the remainder of the psalm expresses lament. To the psalmist and to the worshipers it looks and feels as though God has “renounced” his promises (v 39)—the enemies mock their king, their armies lose in battle, their land is plundered.

So far, every generation of God’s faithful people have, at best, only had a taste of God’s ultimate victory. When we taste it, we rejoice in God’s faithfulness. When, however, things go badly—when Christians live worldly lives and fail to represent Christ, when our leaders fail to represent the Lord faithfully, when the world rises up against the principles of God’s moral law, we wonder if all the promises ever really will be fulfilled.

This psalm reminds us to cry out to God and remind him of his promises. God, it appears, loves to be reminded of his faithfulness…especially when it comes from a heart of trust that looks beyond the present circumstances to the final vindication of he will bring.

Psalm 88

2010-01-07T01:28:00.000-05:00

Some of the stigma of depression has been taken away in the last twenty-five years. The advent of newer medications that deal with chemicals affecting brain function has made depression more treatable than in previous generations, but despite pharmaceutical claims to the contrary, these medications are not a ‘magic bullet.’ Up to 30% of those who use them experience no lasting relief.

This Individual Lament Psalm is unique in the Psalter in that it puts into words the feelings of one who appears to be experiencing clinical depression without relief. Unlike the normal lament psalm which expresses sorrow over the circumstances of life but ends with a ‘declaration of praise’ or a ‘vow of sacrifice,’ this one is an outpouring of grief with no confession of confidence that God will deliver.

Those who have experienced depression can recognize in the psalmist’s word a clear description of the feelings of a severely depressed person:

“I feel constant sorrow and the circumstances of my life overwhelm me” (vv 3).
“For all that God is doing for me, I might as well be dead” (vv 3b–5; 10–11).
“I feel God is angry with me” (v 7).
“I cry out to God continually, but he doesn’t answer me. Though I pray, I still feel the same” (vv 9, 12–14).
“I have felt this way since childhood and there is nothing I can do about it” (v 15).
“I feel cut off from everyone—no one (even my wife and my closest friends) understands me or what I am feeling; I am all alone, and my profound loneliness (‘existential isolation’) is overwhelming” (vv 8, 18).

The psalm ends with a complete sense of hopelessness: “You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me; my companions have become darkness” which may mean, “Darkness has become my only companion” (v 18, ESV margin).

It is hard to figure why God included this in the Psalter. Where is the faith? The psalm is the lament of a person who is struggling in a bog of emotional debris unable to make any progress and complaining of the darkness he experiences. The overwhelming depression in the psalmist is palpable. And it doesn’t even end with hope.

Despite the darkness, however, there is a glimmer of hope. On a very important level, the faith of the psalmist is shown in the mere fact that he prays.

“O LORD, God of my salvation; I cry out day and night before you. Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry” (vv 1–2).
“But I, O LORD, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you. O LORD, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me?” (vv 13–14).

If he were genuinely hopeless, he wouldn’t cry out to God.

This is a point I have reflected on personally because my life has been punctuated by the experience of serious and debilitating depression since early childhood. While many things have helped, nothing has taken it away. We learn much from the inclusion of this psalm in the Psalter.

We learn that depression is an experience of life for some people, even people who are worshipers of God. When God saves a person, he doesn’t always choose to release him or her from this struggle.
We learn that in some issues of life (including ‘mood disorders’), the willingness to continue to struggle and cry out to God is more important than victory.
Most importantly, we learn that God accepts the cry of the depressed person, even when he or she does not express faith in his deliverance.

The Lament Psalms generally teach us how to bring our doubts, fears, and struggles to God in faith. With the exception of this one psalm, they all contain an outburst of praise, an assertion of confidence, or a promise to honor God in public testimony when the petition is answered. They show us what it is like to express our feelings while always remembering that we are to be concerned for the faith of our fellow-worshipers. Psalm 88 is the lone exception to this perhaps to let us know that even when we can’t come to God with the proper words he still hears our prayers.

Psalm 87

2010-01-06T01:27:00.001-05:00

This is the one of the five Songs of Zion in the Psalter which celebrate Jerusalem, the city of God, as the center of God’s redemptive activity on earth (Psalms 46; 48; 76; 87; 122).

Christians today have a tendency to bemoan the movement of our culture away from the Christian foundations on which it was built. As religion in general, and evangelical Christianity in specific, are increasingly ridiculed or treated as ‘harmful’ we feel more and more threatened. As a result, we sometimes retreat to little enclaves of Christian ‘subculture’ in which we feel safe—church buildings or schools become our safe zones in which we can find entertainment, exercise, instruction and coffee shops (!) free from the influence of a wicked culture. We ignore, or re-interpret, Jesus’ commands to become salt and light to the worldly people around us (Matthew 5.13–16).

If that is a problem to us, it was even more so to the people of God under the old covenant. Israel existed as a separate nation with a distinct language, religion and culture which they were commanded not to mix with the pagan nations around them. The tendency was to view all other people with a mixture of pity and horror.

The Songs of Zion are reminders that God has a bigger plan for the nations of the earth. At Mount Sinai, the Israelites were told that God intended for them to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19.6). That is, they were to be the means by which the nations would be attracted to the LORD and they would mediate as priests between the nations and God. The prophets later made even clearer that God’s intention was to bring the nations to himself through Israel (Isaiah 42.6; 49.6).

Psalm 87 speaks of Zion (Jerusalem) as the mother city of all kinds of people, both Jews and Gentiles.

Among those who know me I mention Rahab and Babylon; behold, Philistia and Tyre, with Cush — “This one was born there,” they say. And of Zion it shall be said, “This one and that one were born in her”; for the Most High himself will establish her. The Lord records as he registers the peoples, “This one was born there.” (Psalm 85.4–7).

“Among those who know me” God says, and one expects him to mention outstanding Israelites. But instead he lists five ethnic groups—Egyptians, Babylonians, Philistines, Phoenicians, and Canaanites—all historical enemies of Israel in the Old Testament. God says that he will establish Zion as the place where all these ethnic groups count their origin and destiny and where he owns them all as his people.

When Israel sang this, or when God’s people sing it today, we remind ourselves that we are called to be “a light to the nations” (Isaiah 49.6). Only when we focus on God’s intention to bring blessing to the entire world through the “offspring of Abraham” are we engaging in the purpose for which he has redeemed us.

Psalm 86

2010-01-05T01:26:00.000-05:00

This psalm contains words that portray the type of attitude worshipers should have. I sometimes pray them before I read the Bible in personal worship or publicly before I preach on Sunday mornings.

“Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name” (v 11).

These words are instructive to us about what it means to bring our hearts to God in worship.

First, worship involves the acknowledgement that we need instruction that only God can give. When Jesus sailed to Capernaum and found a multitude of people looking for him, we are told that, “he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things” (Mark 6.34). When Jesus saw the aimless lives of people without God’s direction, he didn’t feed them, sing worship songs to them, or give them work to do; he began to teach them God’s truth. The man who discipled me in college used to ask students, ‘College can tell you how to make a living, but who is going to teach you how to live?’ The instruction we need is not just information, like taking a class in philosophy, but direction about how to live. We need God to teach us how to live.

Second, worship involves the intention to obey what we learn from God. Note that the psalmist says, “Teach me…that I may walk.” We ask God to instruct us about life not so that we know something other people don’t know, but so that we can walk with him in faithful obedience. Some people just want information about God; we need instruction about how to live for God and how to give our lives to God.

Last, worship requires that we ask God to unite our fractured lives into a single-minded focus on him. The psalmist says, “Unite my heart to fear your name.” This implies there is something wrong with our heart—the center of our personality, the place where we are think, feel, and choose. It is smashed, fractured, splintered. Indeed, as Jeremiah said, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17.9). Only God, this implies, is able to gather the scattered pieces of our damaged hearts and put them back together so that we might have a single-minded focus on honoring him.

When we come to God in worship—whether on our own or together with others—we need to come with this attitude. When I pray and think this way, it doesn’t always mean that my Bible reading, reflection and prayer are filled with greater insight or deeper appreciation. But over time I have seen that it fills my life with the proper way of thinking about God and his word; I find him to be my teacher and guide as I move through life.

A Note to the Readers

2009-12-20T00:00:00.002-05:00

I will not be posting any new material to the blog for two weeks to give everyone (including me!) a break during the Christmas holiday. I’ll pick up with Psalm 86 on Tuesday, January 5, 2010. Feel free to use the time to read the psalms, to catch up on the blog if you need to, or to read the informational Sunday posts.

You’ve probably noticed that I’ve gotten into a pattern of taking Mondays off, then posting comments on five psalms a week—Tuesday through Saturday—and, finally, posting an informational (and, sometimes, longer) page on Sunday. This pattern seems to work well for me in terms of my own work schedule. At this rate, we’ll finish working through the psalms sometime in April 2010.

In January after our Annual Meeting is completed (Sunday, January 10, 2010 from 6:00–7:30 pm), I plan to have a Psalms Blog Pizza Party at the White Lake campus on a Sunday afternoon so that people can share the things they are learning from the psalms and I can learn more about how I should do it. I don’t know if we’ll have three people or three-hundred…but I’m sure it will be somewhere between those two numbers.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Tom Lewellen

Psalm 85

2009-12-19T01:25:00.000-05:00

A major message of the Bible that the psalms make clear is that God disciplines his people. He may hold off the punishment of the wicked since, “God's kindness is meant to lead” them “to repentance” (Romans 2.4). But for those of us in covenant relationship with him, those who are his sons and daughters, he firmly and regularly disciplines us to conform us to his character. As the writer to the Hebrews tells us:

“It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?” (Hebrews 12.5–9).

This community lament psalm is based on this fact which permeates the Old and New Testaments—God disciplines his people.

The psalm moves in three parts: First, the worshipers remember God’s past faithfulness in restoring his people after discipline; second, the worshipers pray that God will again turn from his severe correction and revive them again; and, third, the worshipers look to God patiently and expectantly to grant what they have asked in keeping with his character of steadfast love.

From the beginning of Israel’s existence, God predicted that they wouldn’t listen to him and obey him. At Mount Sinai they carelessly promised, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do” (Exodus 19.8), and God responded, “I have heard the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken. Oh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever!” (Deuteronomy 5.28–29). Hear God’s wistfulness: “Oh that they had a heart as this always….” The problem was not with the law, nor even with their intention to obey the law; the problem was that they were incapable of keeping the law with their sinful, human hearts. The entire Old Testament looks forward to what God promised through the prophet Ezekiel that he would do under the new covenant: “…I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you” (Ezekiel 36.26).

So, in the law, God not only predicted Israel’s failure, he also predicted that he would discipline them severely and restore them. In one sense the story of the nation of Israel in the Old Testament is simply the unfolding of the covenant blessings and curses, and the predicted discipline and restoration that is outlined in detail in Deuteronomy 28–30.

In Psalm 85, Israel under discipline cries out for God to fulfill his promises and restore them to their land to live in faithfulness and peace as his chastened people.

Psalm 84

2009-12-18T01:24:00.001-05:00

(Remember: It is best to read the psalm before reading the blog. Today, you may also want to go back and read the psalm a second time after digesting the blog entry.)

This psalm could be titled, ‘Longing for Home’—home, in this case, being the temple in Jerusalem where the worshipers are invited to meet with God. If you haven’t read the blog entry for October 4, 2009 (‘The Location of Worship in the Old Testament’), now would be a good time to go back and read it. The old covenant prepared the way for our worship today by giving the people of God in their childhood a visible place of worship and deeply meaningful forms of worship that would point them to the Messiah. Now that the Messiah has come, he has fulfilled all of the shadows and types of the old covenant system; Jesus is the ‘Temple’ of God and we worship in “Spirit and in truth” (John 4.24) whenever we gather in his name to acknowledge his Lordship.

Every year, faithful Israelites were required to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for three of the yearly festivals—Unleavened Bread (Passover), Weeks (Pentecost), and Booths (Tabernacles) (Deuteronomy 16.16). Technically, only the males were required to appear, but it became customary for whole families to travel to Jerusalem together—read Luke 2.41–52 about Jesus’ childhood experience of going to Passover in Jerusalem with his family.

This psalm is evidently a song to be sung by worshipers as they travel to Jerusalem. Imagine families starting out together for a two- to ten-day journey to Jerusalem. As they leave their village, they meet other families and they walk together. The women and men start to congregate separately and meet up at the end of the day. Many of them camp outside, though it is customary for people of towns and cities along the way to open their homes to the pilgrims. The Songs of Zion (particularly Psalms 120–134, the “songs of ascent”) are sung together by bands of pilgrims. These psalms are meant to remind them of the greatness of God, of the privilege of going to the place where he has put his ‘Name,’ the place where he receives worship, absolves sins through the sacrificial system, and where he blesses his people through the Aaronic priests.

“How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God” (vv 1–2).

After such an opening, the song pictures the temple as a ‘house’ where even the common sparrows find a home and where there are honored people (like the sons of Korah) who engage daily in temple worship in song (vv 3–4). The singers engaging in pilgrimage remind themselves that because they are doing what God commands, he will strengthen them to fulfill their journey to worship (vv 5–7). And they acknowledge that worship is the highest honor of human beings with the heartfelt admission,

“For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness” (v 10).

Children, parents, aged grandparents riding on donkeys all singing together the joy of worshiping God in the way he has commanded. Imagine!

We might be tempted to think that the ancient Hebrew religion was superior to ours in their customs and with their community- and family-oriented faith. Watch ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ and consider what it must have been like to gather on Friday evening beginning of Sabbath, with your father and mother singing the prayer that reminds you of your heritage, calls you to obedience, and pronounces blessings on you. In our fast-paced and fractured world that seems idyllic.

But the Bible teaches us that the people of God under the old covenant were lacking some things we have now. They didn’t possess the indwelling Holy Spirit (in the way that we do today) and they didn’t know the full forgiveness of sins and the cleansing of the conscience through the final and unrepeatable sacrifice of the Son of God (Hebrews 9.11–14; 10.1–4). The joy they experienced in the worship of God cannot match the joy and love poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5.5). Now, “worship” is meant to be our whole lives given to God (Romans 12.1–2). Now, we can engage in ‘pilgrimage’ every day with the privilege of going “with confidence…to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4.16). These are privileges our brothers and sisters under the old covenant never knew.

Psalm 83

2009-12-17T01:23:00.000-05:00

This psalm is not usually considered one of the ‘imprecatory psalms’ (in which the psalmist calls down a curse on his enemies) but it comes close. The psalm pictures a situation in which the nation of Israel, is surrounded by enemy nations who are conspiring to “wipe them out as a nation” (v 4). They even enter a “covenant” (an international alliance) against the God of Israel’s covenant (v 5)!

There is an instructive surprise in the psalm in that the psalmist doesn’t ask God to destroy Israel’s enemies. He does ask for the downfall of their rulers (vv 9–12) but then uses more poetic language to frame his request:

“O my God, make them like whirling dust, like chaff before the wind. As fire consumes the forest, as the flame sets the mountains ablaze, so may you pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your hurricane! Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek your name, O LORD” (vv 13–16).

He is asking for their defeat but not for their annihilation. He wishes for God to humble them in order to reduce them to teachableness—“that they may seek your name, O LORD.”

In a sense he is asking for their conversion to acknowledge the LORD as the true God. Yet the psalmist knows that for their enemies to repent of their lust to see Israel destroyed they must see the error of their ways. When we pray for the conversion of people we should be hesitant to say, ‘Do whatever you need to do, Lord, to bring my friend (child, husband, neighbor co-worker) to yourself.’ Some of us have found that sometimes God takes us at our word and he does all kinds of things—sometimes not very pleasant things—in answering that prayer. Yet there is a time and a person for whom we should pray in this way—the psalmist prays it for those who are the enemies of God and of his purposes.

Note the conclusion of the prayer which shows us another aspect of his prayer for the wicked:

“Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever; let them perish in disgrace, that they may know that you alone, whose name is the LORD, are the Most High over all the earth” (vv 17–18).

Even greater than their enemies’ conversion, the psalmist prays that God would vindicate his own character. Their enemies’ sound defeat will bring them to recognize that God is the true and living God, that his covenant purposes for Israel are the means of “blessing to all the families of the earth” through his people (Genesis 12.3).

This is our purpose in life today as well—that others might know that only the LORD is God; that he alone is to be worshiped and obeyed; that all of life might be brought under his control. That should be our prayer as well as we face difficult people and even opposition to the gospel.

Psalm 82

2009-12-16T01:22:00.001-05:00

This is a difficult psalm for the reader to understand mostly because it is unclear to whom God is speaking. A little background might help.

In Hebrew the generic word ‘God’ is ‘El’ and comes from a root meaning ‘mighty, powerful.’ The plural is ‘Elohim.’ Beginning in Genesis 1.1, the plural is usually used of the living and true God. Most scholars regard it as a ‘plural of majesty’ — much as the Queen of England might refer to herself as ‘we’ (‘We are not amused,’ Queen Victoria was reported to have replied to a vulgar joke). At any rate, we know that the plural elohim, when referring to the LORD, must be singular otherwise the famous sentence “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God (Elohim), the LORD is one” (Deuteronomy 6.4) makes no sense.

Psalm 82 begins with these words:

“Elohim takes his place in the congregation of elohim; in the midst of the elohim he holds judgment” (author’s literal translation, v 1).

First, what do the words ‘congregation of elohim’ mean? And second, who are the elohim whom he judges?

The words ‘congregation of elohim’ are translated in different ways in different English versions: ‘divine council’ (ESV), ‘His own congregation’ (NASB), ‘the great assembly’ (NIV). The reason is that the words ‘congregation of elohim’ are obscure and, to make them more understandable in English, the translators supply some interpretive words. I personally think that the words ‘congregation of elohim’ carry the same meaning as the words ‘congregation of the LORD (YHWH)’ that are used in Numbers 27.17; 31.16; Joshua 22.16. It simply refers to the people of Israel (or their judges) as a gathered community.

When God judges “in the midst of the elohim” the context makes it clear he is addressing the judges and rulers of the nation. After all, the LORD is the divine lawgiver; on the basis of his law, he judges his people. God has appointed human judges among the nation to apply his law in their disputes and in the circumstances of their lives. Here God presides as Judge among the ‘judges.’ He evaluates that they have not been his faithful representatives: Note his basic accusation: They have not been impartial but have supported the guilty and powerful against those who are marginalized in society (vv 2–4).

And his judgment and sentence are clear:

“They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. I said, ‘You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince’” (Psalm 82.5-7).

In saying to the judges, “You are gods” he means, ‘I assigned to you a god-like function to judge among my people in my place.” He judged their work a failure and said that they will die like any other human being despite the dignity of their lofty position — after all, in assigning them a god-like function, the LORD did not impart to them his nature; they are not ‘gods’ in any sense of divinity.

With this in mind read the psalm again, slowly and carefully. There is much to ponder. While we are not a theocracy today, the moral fiber of any society is shown in the seriousness and impartiality of its judicial system. There are judges, like Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia (and others), who still speak of regularly reflecting on the words of the Bible as a check to judicial partiality. When God’s people pray together, we should pray for our judges to seek to reflect the character of God.

Psalm 81

2009-12-15T01:21:00.000-05:00

This psalm urges the people of God to live lives of faithfulness in light of the covenant of the law at Sinai. The psalmist gives a basic review of the covenant blessings for obedience and consequences for disobedience. In the middle of the psalm, God draws their attention to the introductory words to the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, the summary of their covenant responsibilities, and adds a command, saying:

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it” (v 10).

George Müller was one of the most famous Christians in the 1800’s. He was born in Kroppenstadt, Prussia in 1805 and grew up living a very reckless and immoral life. While in college, however, he came to trust in Christ as his Savior and eventually moved to England to train as a missionary to the Jewish people.

He eventually started a church with his friend, Henry Craik, in Bristol, England which they pastored until their deaths—Craik in 1866 and Müller at the age of 93 in 1898. In addition to starting eight other churches from Bethesda Chapel, Müller began a ministry to orphans which became the famous “Orphan Homes at Ashley Down’ in Bristol. This ministry still exists today.

Early in his ministry, Müller was very influenced by this verse. Every morning, he used to walk for miles while reading and meditating on a pocket New Testament. He was very struck by these words, “Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it” (Psalm 81.10). He was at that time contemplating expanding his care for orphans and the need to build a special facility for the purpose. He took God at his word, believing that the God of the New Covenant would provide all that he needed to carry out his work, and he determined to never tell another person his financial needs but only to carry them to God in prayer. The story is quite remarkable but we have time only for a summary: During his lifetime, Müller’s orphanages housed and educated 10,024 orphans to adulthood and built four huge ‘homes’ for the children. He also started a ministry that distributed 16,000 Bibles and 85,000 New Testaments, and he began ‘day schools’ (before the days of public education) that educated 22,000 children between 1836 and 1871. For all of this, he received $2,718,844 (the sum in 2009 US dollars would be astronomical) without ever asking anyone but God for a penny. Even though he was constantly asked, he refused to give any information about the financial needs.

Note that Müller did not rip this verse torn and bleeding from its context. In Psalm 81, God exhorts his people to be faithful to him and promises he will pour out his blessings on them—more than they need to fulfill his purposes in and through them. George Müller believed that God meant what he said.

There is yet work to be done for the expansion of God’s kingdom. Bring your heart to God’s word and let him lead you.

“Covenant” in the Psalms

2009-12-13T00:00:00.004-05:00

A concept that is crucial to appreciating the unfolding story of the Bible is the word ‘covenant.’ This word not only appears in all but eight books of the Old Testament but also is used at key points in its record. Though ‘covenant’ could be used of official, legal human relationships like a treaty (Genesis 31.44) or the marriage relationship (Malachi 2.14), the overwhelming majority of times it refers to God’s relationship with human beings.

Scripture tells us that its unfolding story is the outworking of an eternal plan of God. The message concerns, “eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began” (Titus 1.2), and that our salvation was “predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1.11). Bible students sometimes refer to this plan as the Everlasting Counsel of Redemption. We gather from scripture that the Triune God established the plan of salvation in eternity past—God the Father determined to create human beings and allow them to fall into sin, God the Son offered to redeem them by dying for their sins as their substitute, and God the Holy Spirit agreed to apply to them the benefits of the Son’s redemption. Of course, even if scripture did not refer to this eternal plan of God, we would have to posit that he acted according to a plan. The only wise God, the Ruler of the universe would not act by caprice or whim; he must work things out from his eternal purpose.

A careful reading of the Bible reveals that this eternal plan unfolds in a series of historical covenants between God and humans. Though the first time the word ‘covenant’ is used is in relationship with Noah and the flood (Genesis 6.18), it is evident that from the creation of the human race, God was relating to people through a covenant. Bible students speak of the Covenant of Creation (with Adam and Eve in the garden; sometimes called the covenant of works). When Adam failed that and brought himself and all his descendents under the curse of sin, God related to them through the Covenant with Adam (‘Adamic covenant’), and, later, through the Covenant with Noah (‘Noahic covenant’) that ensured the continued protection of man and the earth as the arena in which he would carry out the plan of redemption.

The Covenant of Promise: The turning point of biblical history and the place where the Everlasting Counsel of Redemption begins to be worked out in time is with the story of Abraham beginning in Genesis 12:

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12.1-3).

This promise can be thought of as one branch with seven buds. In the rest of the Bible, each of the buds unfolds, opens up and blossoms into a beautiful flower, becoming the multifaceted promise that fulfills the Everlasting Counsel of Redemption. The Covenant of Promise is sealed unilaterally by God himself while Abram sits by in a supernaturally deep sleep (Genesis 15.17–21). In other words, Abraham does not commit himself to covenant faithfulness since the promise is one-sided. Its ultimate fulfillment will not be dependent on human faithfulness; though in every generation faithfulness will ensure one’s participation in the covenant blessings, its fulfillment depends only on the faithfulness of God.

The Covenant of Circumcision: After the sealing of the Covenant of Promise, God entered into a covenant with Abraham and his descendents, sealing it with the covenant sign of circumcision (Genesis 17.1–14). This covenant assigned the promise to the ‘seed’ (ESV, ‘offspring’) of Abraham and required their participation by taking the covenant sign of circumcision for their male children. This ensured the development of a distinct ethnic group to whom the promises would pass and through whom they would be fulfilled. (Note: Most Bible students believe that there was only one covenant with Abraham of which circumcision was the sign; I personally believe that the Covenant of Promise is different, being unilateral and unconditional, whereas the covenant of circumcision is the first outworking of the promise. It included a covenant sign (circumcision) requiring an act of obedience by which a person was included in the covenant community.)

The Covenant of the Law (The ‘Mosaic Covenant’): In the book of Exodus, God entered into an additional covenant relationship with the physical descendents of Abraham (Exodus 19.1–24.18). At Mount Sinai, the twelve tribes of Israel (which had expanded from the twelve sons of Israel [Jacob], the grandson of Abraham) were formed to be God’s “treasured possession among all peoples…a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19.5–6). From the day Israel accepted the conditions of the covenant (Exodus 24.3) to the night of the last supper when Jesus held the cup and said, “This is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22.20), the people of Israel related to God through the Covenant of the Law. Though the Covenant of the Law is simply one outworking of the Covenant of Promise (or, we might say, of the Everlasting Counsel of Redemption), the fact that it was in force for almost fifteen hundred years and takes up 93% of the Hebrew Bible is why Christians call it the ‘Old Covenant’ or ‘Old Testament.’

In the psalms, as in the Old Testament as a whole, the word ‘covenant’ usually refers to the Covenant of the Law. This covenant established Israel’s special relationship with God, gave them singular responsibilities and privileges, and called them to the extraordinary task of establishing God’s kingdom on earth. During this time, the promise given to Abraham in an embryonic form expanded and grew—the promise that a nation would descend from Abraham became the promise that his descendents would be as numerous as the stars of the sky and as many as the sand that is by the seashore” (Genesis 12.3; 22.17; Hebrews 11.12); the promise that kings would descend from him became the promise of the final King-Messiah (Genesis 17.6; 49.10; Psalm 110); the promise that they would possess the land of Palestine became the promise that God’s people will inherit the world (Genesis 12.1; 17.8; Psalm 2.8; Matthew 5.5; Romans 4.13).

The Covenant of the Kingdom (The ‘Davidic Covenant’): In 2 Samuel 7, God initiated a covenant relationship with King David. This is not a separate covenant with the people of God as a whole (as was the Covenant of the Law) and it did not change their covenant obligations. This covenant is an ‘addendum’ or ‘expansion’ of the promise. David was promised an eternal dynasty—his line would not end and there would always be a descendent of David to rule upon the throne of Israel. This covenant establishes the Davidic kings as prototypes of the coming Messiah so that they rule an earthly ‘kingdom of God’ as the LORD’s representatives. It also ensures that the Messiah will arise from the descendents of David, narrowing the former promise that the Messiah would arise from David’s tribe of Judah (Genesis 49.10). This covenant is mentioned numerous times in the psalms. In fact, in Psalm 89 the worshipers are reminded of God eternal promise to David and they call upon him to fulfill his unilateral promise despite their national unfaithfulness (Psalm 89.19–37).

The New Covenant: The prophets promised that some day God would establish a new covenant with the people of God in which he would provide an effective atonement for sin that would impart complete cleansing and forgiveness (Jeremiah 31.31-34). He would also give them a‘new heart’ and put his Spirit inside of them so that they might keep his commandments (Ezekiel 36.22–28). Jesus established this New Covenant on the last night of his earthly ministry and gave the elements of the Lord’s Supper as the covenant sign. Every celebration of the Lord’s Supper becomes a ‘covenant renewal ceremony’ by which we acknowledge our inclusion in God’s promises and our responsibility to obey the terms of the covenant.

The New Covenant establishes a new form of the relationship between God and his people. With it, the Old Covenant becomes obsolete and is no longer in force (Hebrews 8.1–13). Jesus Christ, the covenant Mediator, has fulfilled the demands of the law in his own person and work; as the divine Interpreter of the law’s requirements, he has given us his commands (called ‘the law of Christ’ in 1 Corinthians 9.21 and Galatians 6.2) which are our covenant responsibilities. The old covenant dealt with the relationship of the physical descendents of Abraham, the Jewish people. Now, the apostle Paul tells us, all who believe are counted as the children of Abraham and heirs of the Covenant of Promise (Galatians 3.7-9; Romans 4.16).

In reading the Bible, it is most important to know what Covenant is in force in any given passage. In the Old Testament, the people lived as an ethnic group as a nation in the land of Palestine. They had a country, a constitution, a King, and obligations to live so as to fulfill the promises made to Abraham to be the source of blessing to all the nations of the earth. The covenant of the law prescribed their national and personal conduct and gave them the standard of obedience through which they could maintain fellowship with the God of infinite holiness. When we read the psalms, we are reading the laments, prayers and praises of those living under that covenant. In the psalms, references are also made to the promises made to Abraham and to the covenant made with David. Usually, however, it is the Covenant of the Law that is being referred to because this was the focus of their obligations to live as the people of God.

Psalm 80

2009-12-12T01:20:00.004-05:00

You will note that this community lament psalm is broken into three stanzas with a refrain at the end of each one. The refrain says,

“Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved” (vv 3, 7, 19, with v 14 being a variation of this).

The title of the psalm (along with twelve other psalms) tells us that it was written by a man named Asaph. Asaph was the name of one of the Levites whom king David appointed as a singer in the tabernacle (1 Chronicles 16.5). Many interpreters believe that the Asaph of the psalms stands for a family of singers/musicians who served for centuries in the Temple (similar to the psalms written by ‘the sons of Korah’ who were also a family of musicians). The reason is that some of the psalms attributed to Asaph were apparently composed late in the history of Israel while others seem to be much earlier (compare Psalms 78 and 79).

A psalm composed by a Levite, especially one appointed to serve as a musician in the temple would likely contain references to temple worship. Note that this psalm begins with reference to God as “enthroned upon the cherubim” (v 1, referring to the mercy seat in the Most Holy Place as the throne of God). More importantly, the repeated refrain refers to the ‘priestly blessing’ God gave to the descendents to Aaron to bless the people of God. We read in Numbers:

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,
The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them” (Numbers 6.22-27).

“The LORD make is his face to shine upon you” would have been repeated daily by the priests in temple worship. In the Psalm the worshipers recite a phrase of the priestly blessing, asking that in the midst of their difficulties God would put his blessing upon them by showing his favor in their deliverance.

Note also how the worshipers, in making this request of the LORD, also add their own intention to be faithful to God: “Then we shall not turn back from you; give us life, and we will call upon your name” (v 18). It is important, when learning to worship God through the psalms, to note that, when we ask God to be gracious to us we connect it to our responsibility to him to respond to his grace with gratitude and devotion.

Psalm 79

2009-12-11T01:19:00.000-05:00

When God established his covenant with Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai, he commanded them to keep the requirements of the covenant which were embodied in the law and summarized in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20.1–17). He warned them in very specific terms what the rewards would be for covenant obedience and what the consequences would be for disobedience (Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 27–28). And he told them what the ultimate consequence would be:

“The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand…. And they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land, which the Lord your God has given you…. And the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known” (Deuteronomy 28.49, 52, 64).

He also promised that, after he had disciplined them in this way, he would bring them back and establish them in the land as a chastened, restored and obedient nation (Deuteronomy 30.1–10).
After Israel entered the Promised Land and established the nation there, the next nine-hundred years were a fulfillment of the predictions of Deuteronomy. They indeed rebelled against God, worshiped other gods, experienced the covenant curses, and, finally, were besieged by the Babylonian Empire, conquered, displaced from the land and scattered into many different countries.

While the Old Testament story doesn’t end there, it is at this point that Psalm 79 was written:

“O God, the nations have come into your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins” (Psalm 79.1).

This psalm of national lament is quite specific—it describes the overthrow of Jerusalem and the destruction of Solomon’s temple by the Babylonians in 586 BC. History tells us that the Babylonian army was exceptionally violent and biblical history describes the wholesale murder of women and children, and the Empire’s attempt to erase Jewish national identity (as the Assyrians successfully did with the Northern kingdom of Israel in 722 BC) by removing and mixing the people with many different nations. In this case, it didn’t work—to this day continuing Jewish ethnic and national identity is one of the signs that the Bible’s message is true.

In this psalm (unlike Psalms 44 and 74) the worshipers admit their fault before God:

“Do not remember against us our former iniquities; let your compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and atone for our sins, for your name's sake!” (Psalm 79.8–9).

They acknowledged that God had brought upon them the ultimate discipline that the covenant required.

Yet one of the things people struggled with in the Old Testament was how God could use such an unrighteous, wicked nation to discipline his covenant people. It is on the basis of that concern that the psalmist pleads for God to withdraw his discipline, for him to punish the Babylonians and vindicate his name. Despite God’s harsh discipline of their sins they knew that they were still God’s people, the chosen nation. So they close by asking God deliver them from their oppressors and they promise him:

“But we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever;
from generation to generation we will recount your praise” (Psalm 79.13).

Psalm 78

2009-12-10T01:18:00.000-05:00

This is the first psalm of this type we have come across in the Psalter, often called an Historical Psalm (the other two of this type are Psalms 105 and 106). Historical Psalms recount the history of God’s dealings with Israel, along the way drawing lessons for the worshipers about how they should respond. Most likely, Stephen, the first martyr of the Christian movement, was following the pattern of this psalm when he preached to the Jewish people the lessons of their history in Acts 7.

The psalm unfolds in the following way:

(vv 1–8) Introduction: The psalmist calls the worshiping community to reflect on the ways God has dealt with them from the beginning of his covenant with them.
(vv 9–16) They sinned because they forgot God’s redemption from Egyptian bondage and provision in the wilderness.
(vv 17–31) When they sinned against God’s miraculous provision in the wilderness, he severely disciplined them.
(vv 32–39) When God disciplined them, they repented temporarily, but God was gracious to them.
(vv 40–55) They continually rebelled from the time of the Exodus through the conquest of the land.
(vv 56–64) They continued to rebel in the Promised Land, though God was still gracious.
(vv 65–72) Conclusion: Despite their sin and rebellion, God provided a David, a shepherd-king, to guide his people.

The introduction includes an element it is important not to miss: It starts the history of the nation with the establishment of their covenant relationship with God:

“He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments” (vv 5–7).

It is on the basis of God’s gracious covenant with them, established at Mount Sinai and embodied in the law, that they were to follow the LORD and teach their children to zealously obey him. This is recorded in Deuteronomy 6, in which God warned them, “And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers… then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Deuteronomy 6.10-12). The psalm recounts the very attitudes God warned them about.

The psalm reports a number of cycles which each have three elements: Sin (or rebellion), Discipline, and Grace. And despite the fact that this cycle occurs over and over in the psalm, it ends with God’s gracious provision of a shepherd-king who will skillfully guide that nation.

Paul tells us that Israel’s history provides lessons for us today:

“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15.4).

In this psalm, the lesson is that worshipers of God should always “set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments” (v 7). We should pursue faithfulness to our covenant relationship with God. And we also learn that though God disciplines us severely in order to subdue our rebellious hearts he also shows grace even the face of our disobedience because he is faithful to his covenant.

Psalm 77

2009-12-09T01:17:00.001-05:00

This is a Psalm of Community Lament—a song that would be used by worshipers to acknowledge that the people of God struggling in weakness and lethargy. The problem seems to be spiritual and internal, rather than the problem of an external attack from enemies.

The psalm is organized around the two words ‘remember’ and ‘meditate:’

(vv1–3) The worshipers remember God’s character as the prayer-hearing and promise-keeping God:

“When I remember God, I moan; when I meditate, my spirit faints” (v 3).

(vv 5–9) The worshipers remember that at one time things were better when they obeyed the LORD and experienced his grace:

“I said, ‘Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart’” (v 6).

(vv 10–20) The worshipers remember that since God showed his power in the past in mighty acts of deliverance, he can do the same today if his people will turn to him in faith and obedience:

“I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds” (vv 11–12).

One of the important things to look for in the lament psalms is whether the psalm acknowledges sin or not. In other words, when one laments adverse circumstances, he can either acknowledge that they have come about because of one’s personal behavior (in attitude or action) or they can lament that difficulties come about apart from any personal sin. Psalm 79 is an example of the first; Psalm 44 an example of the second.

Note that this psalm is in-between these two possibilities: In Psalm 77, the worshipers are invited to ask if their spiritual lethargy and weakness is a result of disobedience:

“Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” (v 9).

This is not an admission of guilt but a willingness to reflect on one’s heart relationship with the LORD and whether faith and obedience is the characteristic direction of one’s life.

The lament psalms are not all the same—they have a variety that helps us to bring our hearts to God with scriptural balance. While it is true that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3.23), it is not true that every problem in life is a result of personal sin. Those who are more introspective tend to take responsibility for every difficulty in life. Those who are not inclined to much self-reflection, tend to see their problems as the result of others’ sin. None of us are perfectly in touch with how we should respond in any given circumstance. But there is a time to confess sin and there a time to plead our blamelessness before God. Yet there is also a time when we should ask God to reveal to us whether our behavior has brought us under his displeasure, and this psalm is about that time.

Sometimes, when we as a church find that we are struggling spiritually, when many among us are experiencing spiritual weakness and lethargy, this is the kind of psalm we should sing and pray together. We should ask God if we are struggling because of sin, if we are under his displeasure or if we are experiencing spiritual opposition and should remain faithful in suffering.

Psalm 76

2009-12-08T01:16:00.000-05:00

This psalm is usually considered a Song of Zion, but it is also a hymn to God the righteous judge of all the earth. The five Songs of Zion in the Psalter (Psalms 46; 48; 76; 87; 122) all celebrate the fact that God dwells in the midst of his people in the temple in Jerusalem, the capital city. Jerusalem represents the ‘city of God’ — the dwelling place of God and of God’s people, the center of his purpose to bring the nations to himself. Thus, the city is central to God’s purposes on earth and its prosperity and safety is of utmost importance (see blog post from October 28, 2009, Psalm 46).

The psalm begins by noting that God’s “abode has been established in Salem, his dwelling place in Zion” (v 2). The name ‘Jerusalem’ means ‘city of peace.’ The earliest name of the site was “Salem” (shalom, ‘peace’) though that name is only found in Genesis 14.18 and Hebrews 7.1–2. Later it was called ‘Zion.’ From the reference to the holy city, the psalm moves rapidly on to the power and justice of God in destroying the enemies of his people.

Early Jewish interpreters assigned the occasion of this psalm to the defeat of Gentile invaders under Sennacharib (2 Kings 19.5) but there is nothing in the psalm that limits it to that event—there were many attempted invasions of Israel by the surrounding powers that were repulsed by God. Even if the original setting were the invasion of Sennacherib, the psalm is written in general terms to be useful to the people of God as they seek to serve the king of all the earth by taking his message to the regions beyond their dwelling.

A two-fold point is made at the end. First for believers:

“Make your vows to the LORD your God and perform them; let all around him bring gifts to him who is to be feared” (v 11).

These words are an application to those who know the LORD. The proper response to his protection and power is to fear him, that is, return to him the reverence, awe and love that his actions deserve. We do this by giving gifts to him—our time, abilities, resources, and honor.

Yet a point is also made for those outside of God’s care:

“who cuts off the spirit of princes, who is to be feared by all the kings of the earth” (v 12).

Those who do not yet know God ought to fear him as well…because he “cuts off the spirit of princes,” that is, he stops them in mid-stride as they seek to oppose his purposes—which is what the psalm is about.

According to the Bible, fear is always the proper response we give to God—either the ‘fear’ of reverential love or the ‘fear’ of his power, goodness and anger against sin. Which one we give to him is our choice.

The Titles of the Psalms

2009-12-06T00:00:00.005-05:00

(Note: On Sundays, I post something on the psalms to help the readers understand more about the Psalter and how it assists us to bring our hearts to God in worship. Today's post is rather long; if you find it too complicated or uninteresting, feel free to skip it and concentrate on reading the psalms.)

In most modern translations of the Bible, paragraph headings have been added by the editors to give the reader some indication of the content of the material that follows. In the same way, each of the psalms has a heading that is usually drawn from one of the verses in the psalm that is thought to reflect the theme. For example, the heading of Psalm 73 in the ESV is, ‘God Is My Strength and Portion Forever.’ These headings are not part of the inspired text of the Bible. For ease of identification, they are always printed in italics in the ESV.

116 of the psalms, however, have a title. (Note that in different works on the Psalms, the words heading and title are often used interchangeably; sometimes what I am calling the title is called the superscription of the psalm.) Where these are found, they are printed in small caps in the ESV. In the Hebrew Bible they are actually a part of the text and are usually the first verse of the psalm—which is why the numbering of the psalm verses in the Hebrew Bible is often different from our English Bibles. These titles are important because they often give us information about the psalm that we would have no other way of knowing. This may include

An indication of who composed the psalm.
A note about the type of psalm.
A historical note concerning the occasion which gave rise to the writing of the psalm.
A note about the musical accompaniment or melodies to be used with the psalm.
A statement of the worship setting in which the psalm is intended to be used.

Ascriptions of Authorship in the Psalm Titles

Many of the psalms contain a statement that is usually understood to ascribe authorship to a specific person. In Hebrew, the way this is done is by adding a lamed (the letter l) to the beginning of a person’s name. While there is still debate in scholarly circles over whether this indicates who wrote the psalm or for whom it was written, Jesus and the apostles seem to have quoted the psalms as though their titles indicated authorship (Mark 12.35–37; Acts 2.24–36; 4.25–26).

In the book of Psalms:

73 of the psalms are said to have been composed by David
12 of the psalms are ascribed to Asaph (50, 73–83)
11 of the psalms are said to have come from the sons of Korah (42, 44–49, 84, 85, 87, 88)
2 psalms were composed by Solomon (72, 127)
1 psalm is by Heman the Ezrahite (88)
1 psalm by Ethan the Ezrahite (89)
1 psalm is ascribed to Moses (90)

Titles designating the Type of Psalm

Titles may also designate the type of psalm. Unfortunately, some of these terms are obscure, since they are not found anywhere else in the Hebrew Bible or in ancient Hebrew literature.

Fifty-seven are called “Psalms.” This is a technical term only used in the Psalter. It seems to come from the verb that means ‘to pluck strings’ and probably refers to a song that is accompanied by stringed instruments.

Thirty of the psalms are called “Songs” which is a general term for a musical composition.
Thirteen of the psalms are called a Maskil, a Hebrew word for which there is little agreement as to its meaning. A possible meaning is a ‘contemplative poem.’
Six psalms are described as a Miktam. There is no agreement about what this word means.
Five psalms are called a ‘Prayer.’ Since these ‘prayers’ are included in the hymnbook of Israel, it may designate a musical prayer.
Psalm 145 is called “Praise.”
Psalm 45, about the marriage of the Davidic king, is called “a love song.”
Psalm 7 is called a Shiggaion for which there is no agreed meaning.

Historical Notations in the Titles

Many of the Psalms contain an historical note that tells us what event in the lifestory of David gave rise to the psalm. Fourteen of the psalms give us such information. These notes are very important because they allow us insight into how David was responding in faith to an event that is recorded in 1 Samuel 16—2 Samuel 24.

For example, the title of Psalm 3 says, “A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son.” Bible students spend a lot of time and energy combing for clues in each of the psalms, especially those with no title, for any indication of the life-setting of the psalm. That’s why a title like this one in Psalm 3 is so valuable: it tells us up-front what life-experience of king David was the basis for his writing of this psalm. Note that statements of historical note in the psalm titles don’t necessarily mean that the psalm was composed during the experience (David was most likely not composing psalms when he fled from Absalom); they simply indicate what experience gave rise to the composition of it.

Notes of Musical Accompaniment in the Psalm Titles

Many of the psalms include a note regarding musical accompaniment. Some of them, like the notes of types of psalms above, are obscure because the meaning of a word or phrase is no longer understood. Many, however, are clear and helpful in understanding how the psalms were used in worship.

Fifty five of the psalms have the note, “To the choirmaster” in the title. Many of these were written by David. They seem to tell us that the psalm was deposited in the Tabernacle/Temple for use in the public liturgy. Obviously, all of the psalms eventually made their way into such a collection but these were directed by the writer for public use.

Seven psalms, beginning with Psalm 4, are designated to be used “with stringed instruments,” excluding apparently wind and percussion instruments. Psalm 5 was written by David “for the flutes.” Notations that are debated and uncertain include Muth-labben (Psalm 9); Jeduthun (Psalms 39, 62, 77); Alamoth (Psalm 46); Sheminith (Psalms 6, 12)—the word means ‘eighth,’ so it may refer to an eight-stringed lyre; and Gittith (Psalms 8, 81, 84).

There are also notes which are usually understood to designate the common tune to which the psalm was to be sung. These include the following:

Psalm 22: “According to ‘The Doe of the Dawn.’”
Psalm 56: “according the ‘The Doves on Far-Off Terebinths.”
Psalm 45: “according to Lilies” (also Psalms 69, 80).
Psalms 57, 58, 59, 75: “according to ‘Do not Destroy’”—the meaning of this is debated.

Indications of Worship Settings

Finally, some of the psalms contain a notation about the worship event for which the psalm was composed. Many of these are self-explanatory as in, “A Song for the Sabbath” (Psalm 92) or “For the memorial offering” (Psalms 38, 70). Others have a meaning that is not necessarily self-evident to a modern reader:

Psalm 100: “For giving thanks” refers to the todah (thanksgiving) sacrifice in the temple.
Psalm 30: “A song for the dedication of the house” is obscure only because the word ‘house’ could refer to David’s palace or to the tabernacle/temple in Jerusalem. In addition, the content of the psalm doesn’t seem to match the title.
Psalms 120–134: “A song of ascents” refers to a group of psalms that were sung by worshipers as they traveled from their villages and cities, as families and clans, to Jerusalem for the three required festivals. Since Jerusalem was on a mountain they sang these as they ascended.

What does ‘Selah’ mean?

The Hebrew word selah punctuates 71 of the psalms and is also found three times in the book of Habakkuk (Habakkuk 3). It is not found in the title, but at various points throughout the psalm. Most scholars think it is a musical or a liturgical notation, meaning something like, ‘play musical interlude here,’ or ‘pause for reflection here.’ The difficulty is that it often falls at points where (in our modern ideas about music) we wouldn’t put a pause or an interlude. It is one more of the obscure words that are found in the Psalter.

Conclusion

While there is little in the psalm titles that helps us to become more wholehearted worshipers, there is much that gives us insight into the richness of the worship experience under the old covenant. We can see that the Israelites would have been participants in the singing, not just spectators. As generations passed, the psalms became more and more attached to specific acts of worship—the Sabbath, the family journeys to Jerusalem, the enthronement (or annual celebration of the enthronement) of the king, days of national mourning and prayer, offerings in the temple, the Passover celebration, and so on. Most devoted Israelites would have naturally come to know the Psalter by heart simply through its continual use in worship. People’s lives would have become connected to the deep and rich contemplation of the psalms and through them drawn to engage in authentic worship themselves. We need to do the same today.

Psalm 75

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Psalm 75 is a general Psalm of Thanksgiving. Many of the psalms we have been looking at recently have a specific theme that would not make them useful for general worship. A Psalm of National Lament, like Psalm 74, for example, would be included in the Psalter for specific occasions, like a time of national disaster or a remembrance service for the destruction of the temple in 586 BC. (The destruction of the first and second temples is still celebrated every year in modern Judaism as “The Ninth of Av” in July or early August.) On the other hand, Psalm 75, might have ‘everyday use’ as a sacred song that gives thanks to God. In the same way, we don’t usually sing “Hark, the Hallowed Angels Sing” in July, but we might sing “He is Lord” at a meeting of worship and praise any time.

As is customary in the psalms, God is thanked not simply for being God but for specific actions he does as God. In this case, it is because of his providential control of the world and of history. The worshipers acknowledge that, despite the seemingly senseless direction of world affairs to those of us who inhabit it, God is above history and overseeing all the events of the world for his ultimate purpose. This is a matter of faith to believers; it is not something we can always see or empirically measure in our experience.

“When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants, it is I who keep steady its pillars” (Psalm 75.3).
“For not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up, but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another” (Psalm 75.6-7).

Note how the song swings between the worshipers speaking to God (vv 1, 6–9) and God speaking to the worshipers (vv 2–5, 10).

It is natural for believers at times to be shaken by the seemingly uncontrolled events of the world. Wars arise, nations fall, leaders are established or struck down without any discernable plan or purpose. We know that was true in the ancient world—King Omri of Israel was one of the greatest kings of the Middle East in the eighth century BC but the Bible dismisses him with eight verses summarized by the words, “Omri did what was evil in the sight of the LORD” (1 Kings 16.21–28). God evaluates things differently than humans. Yet, the Bible assures us that God’s unseen hands guide all the affairs of this world, he is the one “declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my pleasure’” (Isaiah 46.10).

This is a psalm we can pray and sing today with confidence because our God still controls the destiny of this world just as he did when the psalm was penned.

Psalm 74

2009-12-04T01:14:00.000-05:00

In reading the psalms we must always remember that Israel was a nation—with a king, a territory, a unique ethnic population, and a constitution. They occupied a specific piece of real estate in the Middle East and they were constantly besieged by enemies who wanted to destroy them. Since the people of God today are not a nation but rather a people gathered from the various nations of the earth, we are known only by:

Our common allegiance to Jesus Christ which we place above any earthly connections or obligations;
Our distinct ethic of sacrificial love which we seek to display both within and without our fellowship;
Our meetings for singing, praise and learning, generally open, by which we seek to frame our lives to honor God; and
Our serious effort to help each other live to glorify God and benefit our neighbors in everything we do.

Because of this basic difference in God’s outworking of his covenant relationship with us then and now, we have to always remember to read the psalms through ‘new covenant’ eyes—that is, to translate them into the terms that reflect our relationship to God now.

Psalm 74 is a hymn of national lament. It reflects a disaster in which the temple in Jerusalem has been entered by an invading army, sacked and ruined. We know from the Old Testament that the temple was entered and damaged many times but the seriousness of the damage described in this psalm seems to point to the destruction of Solomon’s temple in (2 Kings 25.8–17; 2 Chronicles 36.17–21; Jeremiah 52.12–23):

“Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary…” (v 3).
“And all its carved wood they broke down with hatchets and hammers. They set your sanctuary on fire; they profaned the dwelling place of your name, bringing it down to the ground” (vv 6–7).

Next week we will come to Psalm 79 which appears to reflect on the same event. In that psalm, the psalmist focuses on the responsibility of the people of God for the disaster—it was because of their long-lasting covenant disobedience that God brought this disaster on them. But in Psalm 74, the focus is on the disaster itself (though there is no denial of personal/national guilt). It is simply a plea for deliverance from the continuing disaster. Note the plaintive cry,

“How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever?” (v 10).

It is the violated honor of God that the psalmist laments the most. When God allows the wicked nations to attack his holy city and temple, it is not because the nations are righteous but because his people have been disobedient. The nations do not fear God to begin with and, in their fierce anger they fear him even less. The psalmist grieves to see God’s character tarnished in the eyes of sinful human beings.

Of course, we must translate this psalm into our own covenantal experience. The purposes of God do not advance evenly as the church moves out into the world in unchecked victory—Jesus entrusted his cause to ‘his body,’ that is, believers who will take his message to the ends of the earth. That involves the risk that we will not always act obediently. The advancement of God’s kingdom will always be dependent on the praying, giving, working, teaching, and loving of God’s people.

The Christian movement is advancing powerfully in parts of our world—particularly South America, China, and Africa. Unfortunately, the western nations, including the US, are languishing in an excess of conspicuous consumption. We should mourn the continued slide of western values away from the moral law of God. Psalms like this remind us that, like the psalmist of old, if that slide is not stopped we will experience the same result they lamented.

Psalm 73

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This psalm is particularly valuable for us to reflect on because it allows us rich insight into the reflection of a worshiper as he moves from fear to faith. As we use it to bring our own hearts to God, it gives us encouragement to face our fears about God and follow the same movement the psalmist takes as he ‘thinks through’ his problem. Follow with me as we follow the reflections of the psalmist.

The first verse functions as a title of the psalm—it states the conclusion of the psalm to let the reader know the end result in advance: “Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart” (v 1). After all, the psalmist is not trying to destroy faith, but through his own painful experiences, to write a song that will allow worshipers to experience all that he experienced—not just the fear that God is not good, but his movement from fear to faith. He wants to assure them that, despite what he is about to say, earnestly seeking to live a righteous life will be rewarded by a just God.

The first half of the psalm details his internal struggle with the goodness of God. The essence of the problem is stated in v 3:

“For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked” (v 3).

In short, many of the wicked prosper in this life: They have all they want; they are boastful, arrogant and deceptive; they live at ease while they mistreat others; they do not fear God.

And the psalmist’s internal struggle over the prosperity of the wicked is precisely stated:

“All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. If I had said, ‘I will speak thus,’ I would have betrayed the generation of your children” (vv 13–15).

Now this is the essence of his struggle: “If God is good, then why do the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer? If God is good, why does ‘being good’ not pay off for me? Why is my life so difficult and why does God constantly discipline me for my transgressions, while he seems to give the wicked a pass?” Now, the psalmist realizes that to voice this complaint openly would cause his fellow believers to stumble (v 15). Note that this song was written after the struggle to provide a rich source of wisdom and reflection for his fellow-believers. He has clearly stated his fear, but fear is not all he has for us to know.

Now the turning point:

“But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end” (v 15–16).

‘I struggled, until…!’ In a time of reflection and worship in the temple, the psalmist came to understand a vitally important truth: This life is not all there is!

In keeping with the Old Testament understanding of the afterlife (please read or re-read the blog post for September 27, 2009, ‘Progressive Revelation’ and the Afterlife), the psalmist doesn’t grasp much about the fact that this life is not all there is—he doesn’t clearly see the doctrines of resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. Jesus came to give us the full understanding of those things. But the psalmist seems to have grasped that God does not fulfill all of his threats or promises in this earthly life. Note that he contrasts the fate of the wicked with what he anticipates as a faithful believer:

“Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory” (vv 23–24).

In other words, when this life is over he anticipates a glorious future that the wicked will not know.

And then the climax of the psalm, the declaration of praise:

“Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (vv 25–26).

What a glorious statement: God is our all in all!

The problem, I find, is that too many worshipers want just these two verses—they want to taste the goodness and sufficiency of God without going through what the psalmist went through to get there. The incredible statement in vv 25-26, however, is not the song the psalmist gave us—it is only the conclusion or refrain of the song. The psalmist could say this, with rich conviction only because he fully embraced the painful struggle of trying to square his convictions about God (‘He is good, loving, and just’) with his feelings about God’s actions in a fallen world (‘He doesn’t seem to be acting like a good, loving and just God’).

You can see here why our contemporary worship songs sometimes seem insipid—they are often based on profound truths like Psalm 73.25–26, but we are only being invited to sing ‘the good parts,’ the conclusion, without going through the same reflections the psalmist had to go through to get there. This psalm is a song of praise (remember Tehillim, ‘Songs of Praise,’ is the Hebrew title of the Psalter). If we read, pray and sing them in worship, we are invited to follow the pathway of discipleship that a saint long before us has already taken. If God grants, we will struggle through our own fears to a faith in God that is, like the psalmist's, richer, purer, and more satisfying.

God invites us—he calls us—to learn to bring our hearts to him. This doesn’t seem to mean he simply wants us to come and tell him how great he is. It seems to mean that he wants us to bring our hearts to him as we find them—broken, wounded, sinful, angry, hard. He wants us to also bring our faith. As we bring our full experience of this earthly pilgrimage through a fallen world, and we seek to experience his love and grace as he reveals himself in his word, he wants to help us struggle through our pain to taste his goodness and his all-sufficiency and then to tell him out of a rich and full faith how great he is. How do we know this is what he wants? We are sure of this because God himself is the ultimate Author and Compiler of the Psalter which contains 150 songs in which people did just that. We should seek to give to God what he delights in.

Psalm 72

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This is one of two psalms written by Solomon (Psalms 72, 127). This one is a royal psalm about the reign of the anointed Davidic king. The word ‘anointed’ in Hebrew is mesheach or, in English, Messiah. Every king in David’s line was a messiah — an anointed king. As such he embodied in his rule of God’s earthly kingdom the reign of God’s coming anointed Davidic King, the Messiah, who will “reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1.33). This does not mean that each of the kings in David’s line was perfect or even a good king in his day; it means, however, that they were the appointed representatives of what God will do in fulfillment of his promises.

This psalm contains a series of prayer requests for the king and the kingdom. The foundational request is stated first:

“Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son!” (Psalm 72.1).

The worshipers are taught in the song to pray for the king, first of all, that he would do the work of ‘justice’ (governing in such a way that fairness is upheld in the kingdom) and have the character of ‘righteousness’ (genuine, personal devotion to God shown in godly living). If the godly king will promote God’s rule in society by seeking integrity in society then the kingdom will come under the approval of God reflected in the covenant blessings (Leviticus 26.1–13; Deuteronomy 28.1–14).

Many of the promised blessings of obedience to the covenant relationship with God are outlined in the following litany of prayers in Psalm 72.2–19. These prayer requests for the king usually begin with the word ‘may’ which occurs thirteen times in this psalm. If the king and his people are faithful to God, the following things will happen:

Justice and godliness will flourish among the people; oppression will be checked and the faithful will experience protection and peace (v 2–4; 12–14).
Evildoes will fear the king in his enduring reign and peace and blessing will be showered by God on the land (v 5–7).
The king will be given dominion of the whole earth; the nations will willingly give allegiance to God’s anointed representative (vv 8–11).
The king will experience fruitfulness in wealth, in crops, in population, and in fame and his subjects will share his blessings (vv 15–17).

As you read these requests, note that they are written in poetic language. As often in the psalms, the literal fulfillment of a request would require a divine king. For example, note the request of vv 5–7:

“May they fear you while the sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations! May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth! In his days may the righteous flourish, and peace abound, till the moon be no more.”

Given the fact that poetry often allows overstatement (‘poetic license’) we can’t miss that no human king could literally reign “while the sun endures and as long as the moon, throughout all generations” (v 5). This is a sentence in which the request points beyond an earthly king to the divine Messiah, Jesus Christ. Only the God-man could literally fulfill this petition.

Every request in the litany of prayers in this psalm is fulfilled or awaits fulfillment in Jesus. If you can remember singing hymns in church, note that the famous hymns “Jesus Shall Reign” and “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed” are both based on this psalm. Rejoice that we have the king the Old Testament people of God prayed for—one who will uphold justice with the righteous character such work demands.

Psalm 71

2009-12-01T01:11:00.001-05:00

I recently enjoyed the movie ‘Up’ from Walt Disney/Pixar. It was such a fun movie with no questionable or adult humor (as so many animated movies have today) and a great moral point. The story line is simply the old, old story of a crotchety old man who is softened by finding something important to do with his life. The reason the tale resonates is that we have all known the stereotypical crotchety old man. So often, as people age, rather than becoming softer, gentler, less self-absorbed, and more wise about life, they become more angry, confused, demanding, and cruel.

Unfortunately, the same is often true spiritually. Both the Bible and experience seems to teach us that faithful old saints are rare in the land. As Christians age, rather than becoming softer, gentler, less self-absorbed…well, the same is true. Not universally true, but true enough that we see it often in the church. It seems that sometimes the troubles of life, even when accompanied by the deliverance of God, overwhelm a person and he feels spent, empty, and angry as he faces the sunset of his life. It seems that, in every generation, there are few people like Caleb who “wholly followed the LORD” and even in old age were engaging in mighty exploits to expand his kingdom (Numbers 32.12; Deuteronomy 1.36; Joshua 14.13).

This psalm appears to have been written by a saint who followed the LORD from his youth, even from childhood (vv 5, 6, 17). Now he looks to old age and asks that God will sustain him as he reaches the autumn of his life (vv 9, 18). Though he still faces opposition and difficulty (this is a lament psalm) he is also still trusting God to strengthen and deliver him.

Re-read the psalm with this in mind. Note the confidence of the psalmist as he looks into his final years of life and recognizes that he continues to face the same difficulties that he did in youth. Listen to his words:

“O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come” (Psalm 71.17–18).

In order to be that kind of man or woman we have to give up our natural belief that God is there to make life ‘work’ for us. Too many of us hold to the conviction that, while we might struggle in life, eventually God will repay us and we will be able to ‘retire to Florida’ (spiritually speaking) and enjoy the last years of our earthly pilgrimage in peace and security. If we cling to this belief, we will be angry when we get to old age and find that it isn’t so. Discipleship is the requirement of every stage of our earthly path. Only heaven will grant the ‘peace and security’ we long for. Yet even that will be true only because God is there in heaven—if we recognize that in this life, even in the midst of difficulties, God is present with us, we will taste the beginning of the peace and security that he will give us forever.

My prayer for my own life is that I might have the attitude of the psalmist as I get older. I am finding that it’s very hard to have that attitude because the desire for relief is so strong in those who have struggled on their way in the Christian life. But this psalm tells me that it is the godly attitude God wants me to have. If that is true, then it must be a good and wise thing to make this psalm my own prayer to God.